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LETTERS TO EUGEMIA, 




ON THE 



ABSURD, COx\TRADICTORY» AND DEMORALIZING 



DOGMAS AiVD MYSTEKIES 



CHHI3TIAH imZiIGXOH. 



BY BARON D'KOLBACH. 



NEW YORK, 



PUBLISHED BY H, M. DUK^JUET, 

No, 190 William Street. * 



1833. 



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By transfer 

D. C. Public Library 

DEC 2 2 1938 



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WITHDRAWN 



^ RECEIVED 



FEBl 6 190^1 



XiSf^^S TO EUai32^ 




* \ 



LETTER I. 



Had not your letter, Madam, contained so 
strong a confirmation of the troubles that agi- 
tate you, I should nevertheless have easily 
recognized the work of superstition. That 
alone is capable of alarming honest minds, 
without calming th^'«^ssions of the corrupt, 
and suffices forever to annihilate repose from 
the heart, of w^iich it once obtains the posses- 
sion. 

Yes, Madam, I have long known the melan- 
choly effects of religious prejudices, and I now 
intend to speak to you with freedom respecting 
them. Perhaps, at first view, my ideas may 
appear strange, but on a closer examination 
they will cease to shock you. In a mind like 
yours, reason, sincerity and truth will always 
possess their rights. 

Your goodness, candour and sincerity, pre- 
vent you from suspecting in others any thing like 
fraud or malignity. The mildness of your dis- 
position prevents you from contradicting notions 
that would appear to you revolting, if you deign- 



k 



4 ' LETTERS TO EUGEXIA. 

ed to examine them ; but you would rather refer 
to the judgment of others, and subscribe to their 
ideas, than consult your own reason and un- 
derstandinn:. The vivacitv of vour imaHnation 
makes you seize with eagerness the dark pic- 
tures presented to you ; interested men avail 
themselves of your sensibility in order to alarn 
you ; they see you shudder at the terrible names 
of death ^judgment, liell^ punishment, and eterni- 
ty ; they strike you with awe at the name of an 
inflexible J^^r/g•p,whose decrees are unchangeable. 
You imao;ine vou see around vou demons that 
are made the ministers of vengeance on his 
feeble creatures. Thus is your mind in con- 
tinual alarm ; each instant you are afraid c 
unknowingly offending a capricious God, who 
is always threatening and revengful. If you be 
consistent in your principles, every moment of 
a life which would have been remarkable only 
for its contentment and peace, will soon be in- 
fected with inquietudes, scruples, and panic 
terrours, from which a mind like yours ought for 
ever to have been exempted. The agitation 
into which these fatal ideas have thrown you, 
suspends the use of your faculties ; your reason 
is drawn aside by a wandering imagination; 
you fall into perplexity, lowness of spirits and 
S3]f-distrust, and you thus become the dupe of 
men, who, by addressing thcm.selves to our 
imauination and deafening our reason, have long 
since succeeded in subjugating the universe, 
and in persuading rational beings that their rea- 
son is eitlier useless or dangerous. 

Such, Madam, is the constant language of the 



T 



LETTERS TO EUGEJJIA. 5 

apostles of superstition, whose project has been, 
and always will be, to annihilate human reason, 
in order that their authoiity over mankind may 
be exercised with impunity. 

Every where have the perfidious 'ministers of 
revealed religion been either the avowed or the 
secret enemies of reason, because they always 
found reason in opposition to their views. They 
have every where decried it, fearing it would 
destroy their empire, by discovering their plots 
and the futility of their fables. They have 
every where endeavoured to erect on its ruins 
the empire of fanaticism and imagination. To 
make sure of success, they have continually 
'.alarmed mankind by hideous representations — 
they have astonished and seduced them by 
wonders and mysteries; they have embarrass- 
ed them by enigmas and uncertainties; over- 
loaded them with duties and ceremonies, and 
filled their minds with scruples and superstitious 
fears. We have only to open our eyes to per- - 
ceive the disgraceful means made use of by 
political priestcraft, to stifle the aspiring reason 
of man. ^ In his infancy he is taught to respect 
tales that are ridiculous, impertinent, contradic- 
tory, and wicked; he is then familiarized by 
degrees with inconceivable mysteries, which are 
announced to him as sacred truths. 

You have no occasion to blush, Madam, for 
a weakness which you possess in common with 
evei'y one around you, and from which the 
greatest men are not always exempt. Let your 
courage, then, be reanimated, and dare to exa- 
mine with coolness the phantoms that alarm 



.^»,ik 



6 '^E'JyERS TO EUGENIA. 

you. In a case so interesting to your peace, 
consult this enlightened reason which places you 
as n^uch above the vulgar, as it 'places the human 
species above all other animals. Leave inquie- 
tude and remorse to those profligate won^en 
who feel self-reproach, or who have crimes to 
expiate. Leave superstition tOi^hose ignorant 
females, whose narrow minds are incapable of 
reflection. 

Do not tell me. Madam, that your understand- 
ing is too feeble to sound the depths of theology. 
Do not tell me in the language of our priests 
that religious truths are mysteries which we 
must adopt in silent adoration, without being 
able to understand them. By speaking in this 
way, ^do you not see that they prescribe and 
condemn this religion Jo which they pretend to 
subject you ? Whatever is supernatural was 
not intended for man to know, and whatever is 
out of the reach of his knowledge ought not to 
occupy his attention. 

To say that religion is superiour to reason is 
an acknowledgment that it was not intended for 
rational beings, and a confession that our Doctors 
know nothing about the w^onders with which 
they daily entertain us. 

If the truths of religion be as they assure us, 
necessary to all men, they ought to be clear 
and intelligible to all men. If the dogmas of 
this religion were as important as we are given 
to understand they are, they ought not only to 
be suited to the capacities of the doctors who 
preach them, but to all those who hearken to 
their discourses. '^ Is it not very wonderful that 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 7 

those whose profession it is to make themselves 
masters of the rehgion which they are to teach 
to others, acknowledge that its dogmas are 
above their own understanding, and yet are so 
obstinate as to inculcate to the people, what by 
their own confession they cannot comprehend ? 

I Should w^e have much confidence in a phy- 
sician, who after declaring that he did not under- 
stand his profession, should nevertheless boast 
of the excellence of his remedies ? This how- 
ever is daily performed by our spiritual quacks. 
By a strange fatuity, the most sensible people 
consent to be the dupes of those empirics, who 
are perpetually forced to acknowledge their 
profound ignorance. 

But if the mysteries of religion are incompre- 
hensible to those who teach them; if among 
those who profess it, none can be found who 
know^s precisely either what he believes or can 
give any account of the motives of his belief 
and conduct, this is not the case with respect to 
the difficulties which w^e oppose to this religion. 
These are within the reach of all, and are so 
simple as to be capable of convincing every 
man who renounces the prejudices of childhood, 
and deigns to consult that common sense which 
nature has bestowed on each individual of the 
human race. 

If you consult our doctors they will not fail 
to display the antiquity of their doctrine, which 
has always upheld itself in spite of the continual 
attacks of heretics, wicked men and infidels, and 
in spite of pagan persecution. You have too 
good an understanding not to perceive that the 
6 



8 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

antiquity of an opinion proves nothing in its 
favour. If antiquity were a proof of truth, 
Christianity would be forced to give way to 
Judaism, which for the same reason must yield 
to the rehgion of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, 
that is to say, to idolatry which was long anterior 
to Moses. It was believed for thousands of 
years that the sun turned round the earth, which 
remained stationary; and yet it is not the less 
true that the sun is fixed, and that the earth turns 
round the sun. 

You are not calculated to be the dupe of 
names and authorities. You will be astounded 
with the multiplied testimony of many illustrious 
and learned men, who have not only admitted 
the Christian religion, but have been its most 
zealous defenders. You will be told of holy 
doctors, great philosophers, powerful reasoners, 
fathers of the church, and learned interpreters, 
who have successively supported this religious 
system. I shall not in this place contest their 
understandings, which are nevertheless fre- 
quently defective ; I shall content myself with 
saying, that in religious matters the greatest 
geniuses are frequently less clearsighted than the 
people themselves; that they have not examined 
the opinions they taught, either because they re- 
garded them as sacred, or because they had 
never traced the origin of their principles, which 
they would have found ruinous, after an unpre- 
judiced consideration; or in short, because they 
saw themselves interested in the defence of a 
cause to which their own fortune was attached. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 9 

Thus is their testimony exceptionable, and their 
authority of no great weight. 

With respect to interpreters and commenta- 
tors, who have painfully laboured during so 
many ages to elucidate the divine laws ; to ex- 
plain the sacred writings of the Christians, and 
to fix the dogmas of faith, even their labours 
ought to make us suspect a religion founded on 
those books, and teaching those dogmas. They 
prove to us that works said to emanate from 
the Supreme Being, are obscure, unintelligible, 
and stand in need of human assistance to be 
understood by those to whom the Deity wished 
to discover his will. The laws of a wise God 
ought to be simple and clear: none but defec- 
tive laws stand in need of interpretation. 

It is not then to those interpreters to whom 
you must apply. It is to yourself; it is your 
own reason that you must consult. Your own 
happiness and welfare are at stake, and these 
objects are of too serious a nature for you to 
entrust to others the decision respecting them. 
If religion be a matter as important as it is as- 
serted to be, it undoubtedly merits the greatest 
attention. If this religion must have an influ- 
ence on the happiness of men in this world and 
the next, there is no affair of more lively interest, 
nor which consequently demands a more mature 
examination. [Can any thing then be more 
strange than the conduct adopted by the greater 
part of mankind ? ' Though perfectly convinced 
of the necessity of religion, and of its import- 
ance, yet 'never do they give themselves the 
trouble to examine it; they observe it from cus- 



10 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

torn and habit; they never account to themselves 
for its dogmas ; they revere it, they submit to 
it, and groan under its burthen, without asking 
themselves why they do so. - In short they have 
recourse to others to examine for them, and 
those in w^hose judgment they put such blind 
trust, are precisely the persons whose decisions 
they ought to regard with suspicion. 'Priests 
have the right to judge exclusively, and without 
any appeal, the merits of a system evidently 
invented for their own emolument. ^But what 
do these priests say to us ? -Visibly interested 
in maintaining received opinions, they represent 
them to us as necessary to the public, as inte- 
resting and consoling to each of us, as intimately 
connected with morality, as indispensable to 
society ; in a word, as being of the very first 
importance. After having thus prejudiced us 
in their favour, they immediat^^ly 'f(j)rbid us to 
examine matters so important to be known. — 
I What are you to think of such conduct? 'You 
must conclude that they wish to deceive you; 
that they fear examination only because their 
religion cannot withstand it, and that they are 
afraid of reason, w^hich might unveil the wicked 
projects of the priesthood to enslave the human 
race. 

Thus Madam, I cannot too often repeat it, 
examine for yourself, make use of your own 
understanding, seek truth in the sincerity of 
your heart, silence prejudice, and be on your 
guard against habitual ceremonies. Bid defiance 
to imagination, and then in sincerity with your- 



I 



I 

\ 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 11 

self you will weigh with a sure hand the opin- 
ions of religion. 

' From whatever source they spring, you will 
acquiesce only in what is corvincing to your 
own reason, satisfactory to your understanding, 
conformable to sound morality, and approved 
of by a virtuous mind. You will reject with 
disdain what is contradictory to reason; you 
will cast fiY)m you with dread, such notions as 
are criminal and injurious to morality, and which 
religion strives to impose upon us as virtues that 
are supernatural and divine. 

j Wise and amiable Eugenia! Rigorously 
examine the ideas which at your own request 
I intend to lay before you. Do not suffer your 
confidence in me, nor your prejudice for my 
weak understanding, to blind you with respect 
to my opinions. *I submit them to your judg- 
ment ; discuss them, combat them, and do not 
yield, till you think you have discovered the 
truth. 

My sentiments are not offered as so many 
oracles, nor are they like theological opinions, 
against which we are not permitted to make 
any appeal. If I have told the truth, adopt my 
ideas ; if I be deceived, point out my errours; I 
am ready to acknowgel^ them, and to sign my 
own condemnation. 

I shall esteem myself happy if my reflections 
contribute to restore you to that tranquillity of 
hiind, which is so necessary to enable us to 
judge of things rationally, and without which 
there can be no happiness. 

I shall enter into particulars in my second 
6* 



12 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

Letter, and shall go back to the foundation. I 
flatter myself I shall prove to you, in the course 
of this correspondence, that the objects which 
theology endeavours to perplex and surround 
with darkness, in order to render them more 
sacred and respectable, are not only susceptible 
of being understood by you, but may even be 
fully comprehended by any one w^ho enjoys the 
most ordinary share of common sense. 

Should my freedom, Madam, appear too ab- 
rupt, you must consider that you are the cause 
of it. It was necessary to speak plainly, I 
thought myself obliged to oppose a violent and 
prompt remedy to the malady that had attacked 
you. Besides, I dare to hope, that in a short 
time you will thank me, for having shown you 
the truth in all its brightness; and that you 
will pardon me for having dispelled the incom- 
modious phantoms that infested your mind. 
My effeorts for your tranquillity will prove to 
you at least, the interest I feel in your hap- 
piness, and the respect with which 

I am, &c. 



LETTER IL 



EviaRY religion is a system of opinions and 
conduct, founded on the true or false notions 
which we form respecting the Deit}^ 

• To judge of the truth of a system, we must 
examine its principles, see if they be in agree- 
ment one with another, and ascertain that every 
part thereof is an additional support to that 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 13 

system. For a religion to be true, it must give 
us true notions of God. ' It is only by the aid 
of our reason that it is possible for us to judge 
whether the attiibutes which theology ascribes 
to the Deity, be true or not; and truth, as it 
regards man, is nothing more than a conformity 
to reason. Thus we see it is the same reason, 
now attempted to be proscribed, which is alone 
capable of enabling us to judge of the truths 
that religion offers to us. The true God must 
be a God conformable to reason, and true wor- 
ship cannot consist in any acts but those which 
reason approves. 

Religion is important only in proportion to 
the advantages it procures lor mankind. The 
best religion is that which enables those who 
profess it, to enjoy benefits that are real, sub- 
stantial, and lasting. A false religion can give 
nothing to those who practise it that is not false, 
chimerical, and of short duration. It is for 
reason to judge whether the advantages pro- 
cured are real or imaginary ; and it belongs to 
reason to decide whether a religion, a worship 
a system of conduct, be advantageous or inju- 
rious to the human race. 

It is according to these incontestible principles 
that I proceed to examine the Christian religion. 
I begin by analyzing the ideas which it gives us 
of the Deity, whom it boasts to make known 
to us in a more perfect manner than all the 
other religions in the world. I shall examine 
whether these ideas agree one with another ; 
whether the dogmas taught by this religion are 
in reality conformable to these fundamental 



14 LETTER? TO EUGENIA, 

rules, and can be reconciled with them; and 
whether the conduct it prescribes answers to 
the conceptions it gives us of the Deity. I shall 
then close the subject with an examination of 
the advantages which the Christian religion 
procures to mankind ; advantages which, in the 
opinion of its partizans,. infinitely surpass those 
which result from all the other religions of the 
earth. 

Christianity admits for its basis, the belief of 
one God, whom it defines to be a pure spirit, an 
etemal,independent,and immutable intelligence, 
who performs every tiling, knows eveiy thing, 
foresees eveiy thing, and fills the universe with 
immensit}'. He created out of nothing, the 
world, and all it contains ; he preserves and 
governs it according to the laws of his wisdom, 
his goodness, his justice, and the infinite perfec- 
tions displayed in all his works. 

These are the ideas which Christianity gives 
us of the Deity. Let us see, then, if they agree 
with the other notions which this religious sys- 
tem presents to us, under the pretence that they 
were revealed by God himself, and that from 
him alone we hold those truths which he has 
hidden from the rest of mankind, to whom his 
perfections have never been made known. 
Thus the Christian religion is founded on a par- 
ticular revelation, i To whom was this reve- 
lation made ? First to Abraham, and then to 
his posterity. The God of the universe, the 
Father of all mankind, resolved to make himself 
known only to the descendants of a Chaldean, 
who during the space of some thousands of 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 15 

years, were in exclusive possession of the 
knowledge of the true God. By an act of his 
special goodness, the Jews were a long time 
the only people who were fa^'oured with that 
knowledge which is equally necessary to all 
mankind. This was the only people that knew 
how to conduct themselves towards the Supreme 
Being; all other nations were in darkness, or 
had ideas that were imperfect, ridiculous, and 
criminal respecting the Sovereign of Nature. 

Thus, at the very first step, we perceive that 
Christianity annihilates the goodness and justice 
of its God. A particular revelation announces 
a partial God, who favours part of his children 
to the prejudice of all the rest ; who consults 
only his own caprice, instead of rewarding real 
merit ; who from his inability to give happiness 
to the whole human race, shows his tender- 
ness only to a few individuals, who are never- 
theless as much incapacitated to please him as 
the rest of their brethren. What shall we say 
of a father placed at the head of a numerous 
family, who should show his parental kindness 
only to one of his children ; who should fix the 
whole of his attention on him alone, and who 
should be dissatisfied with all the rest for not 
performing his will, although he had never con- 
sented to let them approach his person, i Should 
we not accuse such a father of caprice, cruelty, 
stupidity and folly, w^ere he to inliict his wrath 
on those children, whom he himself had exclud- 
ed from his presence ? i Should we not tax 
him with an injustice of v/hich only the most 
senseless of our species could be capable, were 



16 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

he to punish them for not obeying commands, 
which he had not condescended to make known 
to them? 

Let us conclude then, Madam, that a par- 
ticular revelation does not suppose God to be 
good, impartial, and equitable, but that it rather 
supposes an unjust and a whimsical tyrant, 
who, though he may display a kindness and 
a preference for some of his creatures, is for 
that very reason cruel to all the rest. This 
being the case, revelation does not prove the 
goodness, but it proves the caprice and partiality 
of the God whom the Christian religion teaches 
us to regard as a being of infinite wisdom, 
benevolence and equity, and as the common 
Father of all the inhabitants of the earth. If 
the interest and self-love of those whom he has 
favoured, cause them to admire the profound 
ways of a God, because he heaps benefits upon 
them to the injury of their fellow-creatures, he 
must appear very unjust to those who are the 
victims of his partiality. 

Nothing but pride could persuade those men, 
that they were, to the exclusion of all others, 
the people cherished by providence. 

BUnded by their vanity, they did not perceive 
that his universal and infinite goodness, was 
belied by supposing him capable of giving a 
preference to some particular men, or some 
particular nations, all of whom ought to be 
equal in his eyes, if it be true that they are 
equally the work of his hands. 

Nevertheless, on particular revelations, are 
founded all the religions of the world. As each 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 17 

man has the vanity to think himself the most 
important being in the universe, so is each nation 
persuaded that to the exclusion of all others, it 
ought to enjoy the tenderness of the Sovereign 
of Nature. If the Indians imagine that it is to 
them only that Brama has spoken; the Jews and 
Christians persuade themselves that for them 
alone, the world was created, and that it is to 
them alone that God has revealed himself. 

But let us for a moment suppose that God has 
really manifested himself; i how could a pure 
Spirit render himself sensible ? i What shape 
did he tade ? i What kind of material organs 
did he make use of in speaking ? i How did 
the infinite Being communicate his thoughts to 
finite beings ? 1 shall be answered that to ac- 
commodate himself to the weakness of his 
creatures, he employed in his ministry a chosen 
number of men co announce his will to others ; 
that he has i^iled them with his own spirit, and 
spoken by cheir mouths. 

^But how shall we conceive the infinite Being 
capable of uniting himself with the finite nature 
of n^an? ^ How shall I ascertain whether he 
who pretends to be inspired by the Deity, does 
not pubHsh his own reveries or impositions for 
the oracles of heaven? ^How shall I ascertain 
if it be really true that God speaks by his voice? 
It is immediately replied that to give weight to 
the words of those whom he has chosen to be 
his interpreters, God has communicated to them 
a portion of his omnipotence, and that they 
have performed miracles which prove their di- 
vine mission. On my asking, ^what is a mira- 



18 LETTERS TO EUGEIVLl. 

cle? I am told that it is an operation contrary 
to the laws of nature which God himself has 
fixed ; to which I reply, that, according to the 
ideas I have formed of the divine wisdom, it 
appears to me impossible that an immutable 
God can change the wise laws which he him- 
self has established. I thence conclude that 
miracles are impossible, seeing they are incom- 
patible with our ideas of the wisdom and immu- 
tability of the Creator of the universe, j Besides, 
these miracles would be useless to God ! If he 
be omnipotent, i can he not modify the minds of 
his creatures according to his own will ? 

To convince and to persuade them, he has 
only to will that they shall be convinced and 
persuaded. He has only to tell them things 
that are clear and sensible, things, that may be 
demonstrated; and to evidehce of such a kind 
they will not f lil to give their assent. To do 
this, he will have no need either of miracles or 
interpreters ; truth alone is sufficient to win 
mankind. 

Supposing, nevertheless, the utility and pos- 
sibility of these miracles, how shall I ascertain 
whether the wonderful operation which 1 see 
performed by the interpreter of the Deity, be 
conformable or contrary to the laws of nature? 
I Am I acquainted with all these laws ? i May 
not he who speaks to me in the name of the 
Lord, execute by natural means, though to me 
unknown, those works which appear altogether 
extraordinary ? [ How shall I assure myself 
that he does not deceive me ? i Does not my 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 19 

ignorance of the secrets and shifts of his art, 
expose me to be the dupe of an able impostor, 
who might make use of the name of God to in- 
spire me with respect, and to screen his decep- 
tion ? Thus, his pretended mira.cles ought to 
make me suspect him, even though I were a 
witness of them ; ^but how would the case stand, 
w^e:e these miracles said to have been performed 
some thousands of years before my existence ? 
I shall be told that they were attested by a mul- 
titude of witnesses; but if I cannot trust to 
myself when a miracle is performing, ^how shall 
I have confidence in others, who mav be either 
more ignorant, or more stupid than myself, or 
who perhaps thought themselves interested in 
supporting by their testimony, tales entirely 
destitute of reality ? 

If, on the contrary, I admit these miracles, 
^what do they prove to me ? ^Will they furnish 
nie with a belief that God has made use of his 
omnipotence to convince me of things, which 
are in direct opposition to the ideas I have form- 
ed of his essence, his nature, and his divine per- 
fections ? If I be persuaded that God is immu- 
table, a miracle will not force me to believe that 
he is subject to change. If I be convinced that 
• God is just and good, a miracle will never be 
sufficient to persuade me that he is unjust and 
wicked. If I possess an idea of his wisdom, all 
the miracles in the world would not persuade 
me that God would act like a madman. ^Shall 
I be told, that he would consent to perform mi- 
racles that destroy his divinity, or that are 
1 ^ 



20 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

proper only to erase from the minds of men the 
ideas which they ought to entertain of his infi^ 
nite perfections ? This, however, is what would 
happen were God himself to perform, or to 
grant the power of performing: miracles in fa- 
vour of a particular revelation. He would, in 
that case, derange the course of nature, to teach 
the world that he is capricious, partial, unjust, 
and cruel ; he would make use of his omnipo- 
tence purposely to convince us, that his good- 
ness was insufficient for the welfare of his crea- 
tures; he would make a vain parade of his 
power, to hide his inability to convince mankind 
by a single act of his will. In short, he would 
interfere with the eternal and immutable laws of 
nature, to show us that he is subject to change, 
and to announce to mankind some important 
news, which they had hitherto been destitute of, 
notwithstanding all his goodness. 

Thus under whatever point of view we Re- 
gard revelation, by whatever miracles we may 
suppose it attested, it will always he in contra- 
diction to the ideas we have of the Deity. They 
w^ill show us that he acts in an ujijust and an 
arbitrary manner, consulting only his own whims; 
in the favours he bestows, and continually chang- 
ing his conduct ; that he was unable to commu- 
nicate all at once to mankind, the knowledge 
necessary to their existence, and to give them 
that degree of perfection, of which their natures 
were susceptible. Hence, Madam, you may 
see, that the supposition of a revelation, can 
never be reconciled with the infinite goodness, 



LETTERS TO EUGEN^EA. 21 

justice, omnipotence, and immutability of the 
Sovereign of the universe. 

They wili not fail to tell you, that the Creator 
cf all things, the independent Monarch of Na- 

~ ture is the master of his favours; that he owes 
nothing to his creatures ; that he can dispose of 
them as he pleases, without any injustice, and 
without their having any right of complaint; 
that man is incapable of sounding the profundity 
of his decrees, and that his justice is *"ot the 
justice of men. But all these answers which 
divines have continually in their mouths, serve 
only to accelerate the destruction of those sub- 
lime ideas, which they have given us of the 
Deity, The result appears to be, that God 
conducts himself according to the maxims of a 
fantastic sovereign, v/ho satisfied in having re- 
warded some of his favourites, thinks himself 
justified in neglecting the rest of his subjects, 
and to leave them groaning in the most deplo- 
rable misery. 

You must acknowledge. Madam, it is not on 
5uch a model, that we can form a powerful, 
equitable and beneficent God, whose omnipo- 

-tence ought to enable him to procure happiness 
to all his subjects, without fear of exhausting 
the treasures of his goodness. 
•If we are told that divine justice bears no 
resemblance to the justice of men, I reply that 
in this case, we are not authorized to say that 
God is just; seeing that by justice, it is not 
possible for us to conceive any thing, except a 
similar quality to that called justice by the 
%e'mg» of our own species. > If divine justice 



22 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

bears no resemblance to human justice ; if, on 
the contrary, ' this justice resembles what we 
call injustice, then all our ideas confound them- 
selves, and we know not either what we mean 
or what we say,' when w^e affirm that God is 
just. According to human ideas (which are 
however the only ones that men are possessed 
of) justice will always exclude caprice and 
partiality; and never can we prevent ourselves 
from regarding as iniquitous and vicious, a 
sovereign, who being both able and willing to 
occupy himself with the happiness of his sub- 
jects, should plunge the greatest number of them 
into misfortune, and reserve his kindness for 
those to whom his whims have given the pre- 
ference. 

With respect to telling us, that God owes no* 
thing to his creatures, such an atrocious principle 
is destructive of every idea of justice and good- 
ness, and tends visibly to sap the foundation of 
all rehgion. 'A God that is just and good, owes 
happiness to every being to whom he has given 
existence ; he ceases to be just and good, if he 
produce them only to render them miserable ; 
and he would be destitute of both wisdom and. 
reason, were he to give them birth only to be 
the victims of his caprice. Wliat should we 
think of a father bringing children into the world, 
for the sole purpose of putting their eyes out, 
and tormenting them at his ease? 

On the other hand, every religion is founded 
on the reciprocal engagements supposed to 
exist between God and his creatures. If God 
owe nothing to men ; if he be not bound to fulfil 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 23 

life engagements with them, when they fulfil 
their's, .j^.what purpose is rehgion intended to 
serve ? 

I What motives can men have to render to 
the Deity their homage and their worship? 

^ Why should Vv^e show so much officiousness 
in loving or serving a master, who thinks him- • 
self justified in dispensing with all duty towards 
those he has engaged in his service? 

It is easy to perceive that the ideas which 
Ihey promulgate, are destructive of divine jus- 
tice, and that they are founded on a fatal preju- 
dice, common among the vulgar, that great 
power must necessarily place its possessor be- 
yond the laws of equity, that force can give a 
right to act wickedly, and that no one ought to 
question the actions of a man sufficiently pew- 
'erfui to follow his own caprices. ' These notions 
are visibly borrowed from the conduct of tyrants, 
who no sooner possess unlimited power, than 
• they cast off all restraint but that of their own 
fancy, and imagine that justice has nothing to do 
with their condition. It is in this hideous shape, 
that our divines have formed their God, whose 
justice nevertheless they pretend to substantiate ; 
yet, if the conduct attributed to him were true, 
we should be compelled to regard him as the 
most unjust of tyrants, the partial of fathers and 
the most fantastical of princes. In short, of all 
the beings that our minds can conceive, he would 
certainly be the most fearful and the least worthy 
of our love. We are likewise told that God, 
who created all men, wished himself to be known 
1* 



24 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

only to a very small number among: them : that 
whilst these chosen few exclusively enjoyed his 
kindness, all the rest are the objects of his wrath, 
and that he created them only with a view of 
leaving them in ignorance and darkness, in order 
• to inflict on them the most cruel of punishments. 
•We see that these unhappy traits in the cha-^ 
racter of the Deity, pierce through every shade ' 
of the Christian economy ; Vv^e find them in the 
books which they pretend to be inspired, and 
witness them in the dogmas of predestination 
and grace. 

In a word, this religion announces a despotic 
Deity whom we vainly attempt to justify, whilst 
every thing related of him serves only to prove 
his injustice, his capricious tyranny, and whim- 
sical partiality. ¥/hen we expostulate against 
his conduct, which, in the eyes of every rational 
man must appear so inordinate, • the priests 
think to stop our mouths by telling us he is 
omnipotent ; that he is the master of his own 
favours ; that he owes nothing to any creature, 
and that we worms of the earth, have no right 
to criticise his actions. They finish by intimi- 
dating us with the frightful and iniquitous chas- 
tisements which are in reserve for those who 
dare to murmur at his decrees. 

It is easy to perceive the futility of these 
arguments. ' Power, I do contend can never 
confer the right of violating equity. Let a 
sovereign be as powerful as he may, he is not ' 
on that account less blameable, when in rewards 
and punishments he follows only his caprice. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 25 

• It is true, wc may fear him, we may flatter 
him, we may pay him servile homage : but never 
shall we love him sincerely ; never shall we 
serve him faithfully r never shall we look up to 
him as the model of justice and goodness. If 
those who receive his kindness believe him to 
be just and good, those who are the objects of his 
folly and vigour, cannot prevent themselves 
from detesting his monstrous iniquity in their 
liearts. 

If we be told that we are only as worms of 
earth relatively to God, or that we are only hke 
a vase in the hands of a potter, I reply in this 
case, that there can neither be connection 
nor moral duty between the creature and 
his Creator ; and I shall hence conclude, 
that religion is useless, seeing that a worm of 

• earth can ovv^e nothing to a man crushes it, and 
that the vase can owe nothing to the potter that 
has formed it. In the supposition, that man is 
only a worm, or an earthen vessel in the eyes 
of the Deity, he would be incapable either of 
serving him, glorifying him, honouring him, or 
offending him. \Ve are, however, continually 
told, that man is capable of merit and demerit in 
the sight of his God, whom he is ordered to love, 
serve and worship. We are hkewise assured, 
that it was mian alone, whom the Deity had in 
view in all his works ; that it is for him alone, 
the universe was created ; for him alone, that 
the course of nature was so often deranged ; 
and, in sliort, it was with a view of being 
honoured, cherished, and glorified by man, that 



26 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

God has revealod himself to us. According to 
the principles of the Christian religion, God 
does not cease, for a single instant, his occu- 
pations for man, this worm of earth, this earthen 
vessel, which he has formed. 'Nay, more : man 
is sufficiently powerful to influence the honour 
and glory of his God ; • it rests neither with 
man to please him, or to irritate him, to deserve 
his favour or his hatred, to appease him or to 
kindle his wrath. 

I Do you not perceive, Madam, the striking 
contradictions of those principles which, never- 
theless, form the basis of all revealed religions ? 
Indeed, we cannot find one of them that is not 
erected on the reciprocal influence between 
God and man, and between man and God. Our 
own species, which are annihilated (if I may 
use the expression) every time that it becomes 
necessary to whitewash the Deity from some 
reproachful stain of injustice and partiality ; 
these miserable beings,* to whom it is pretended 
that God owes nothing, and who, we are assur- 
ed, are unnecessary to him for his own felicity ; 
the human race, which is nothing in his eyes, 
becomes all at once the principal performer on 
the stage of nature. We find that mankind are 
necessary to support the glory of their Creator; 
we see them become the sole objects of his care t, 
we behold in them the power to gladden or 
afl3ict him ; we see them meriting his favour, 
and provoking his wrath. According to these 
contradictory notions concerning the God of 
the universe, the source of all felicity, ^is he not 



LETTEHS TO EUGENIA. 27 

really the most wretched of beings? We behold 
him perpetually exposed to the insults of men, 
who offend him by their thoughts, their words, 
their actions, and their neglect of duty. They 
incommode him, they irritate him, by the capri- 
ciousness of their minds, by their actions, their 
desires, and even by their ignorance. If we 
admit those Christian principles which suppose 
that the great portion of the human race excites 
the fury of the Eternal, and that very few of 
them live in a manner conformable to his views, 
^will it not necessarily result therefrom, that in 
the immense crowd of beings whom God has 
created for his glory, only a very small number 
of them glorify him and please him ; while all 
the rest are occupied in vexing him, exciting 
his wrath, troubhng his felicity, deranging the 
order that he loves,Trustrating liis designs, and 
forcing him to change his immutable intentions ? 
You are, undoubtedly, surprized at the contra- 
dictions tobe encountered at the very first stepwe 
take in examining this religion ; and I take upon 
myself to predict that your embarrassment will 
increase as you proceed therein. If you coolly 
examine the ideas presented to us in the reve- 
lation common both to Jews and Christians, and 
contained in the books which they tell us are 
sacred, you will find that the Deity who speaks 
is always in contradiction with himself; that he 
becomes hi? own destroyer, and is perpetually 
• occupied in undoing what he has just done, and 
in repairing his own workmanship, to which, in 
the first instance, he was incapable of giving 



28 LieiTTERS TO EUGENIA. 

that degree of perfection he wished it to possess. 
He is never satisfied with his own works, and 
cannot, in spite of his omnipotence, bring the 
human race to the point of perfection he intend- 
ed. The books containing the revelation, on 
which Christianity is founded, every where dis- 
play to us a God of goodness in the commission 
of wickedness; an omnipotent God, whose pro- 
jects unceasingly miscarry ; an immutable God 
changing his maxims and his conduct ; an om- 
niscient Godjcontinually deceived unawares ; a 
resolute God, yet repenting of his most important 
actions; a God of wisdom, whose arrangements 
never attain success. He is a great God, who 
occupies himself with the most puerile trifles ; 
an all-sufficient God, yet subject to jealousy ; a 
powerful God, yet suspicious, vindictive, and 
cruel ; and a just God.' yet permitting and pre- 
scribing the most atrocious iniquities. 'In a word, 
he is a perfect God, yet displaying at the same 
time such imperfections and vices, that the most 
despicable of men would blush to resemble him. 
Behold, Madam, the God whom this religion 
•orders you to adore in spirit and in truth, I 
reserve for another letter, an analysis of the 
holy books which you are taught to respect as 
the oracles of heaven. I now perceive for the 
first time, that I have perhaps made too long a 
dissertation, and I doubt not, you have already 
perceived, that a system built on a basis pos- 
sessing so little solidity as that of the God whom 
his devotees raise with one hand and destroy 
with the other, can have no stability attached 



L^TTEKS TO EUGENIA. 29 

to it, and can be regarded only as a long tissue 
of errours and contradictions. 

I am, &G. 



LETTER IIL 



You have seen, Madam, in my preceding let- 
ter, the incompatible and contradictory ideas 
which this religion gives us of the Deity. You 
will have seen that the revelation which is an- 
nounced to us, instead of being the offspring of 
his goodness and tenderness for the human race, 
is really only a proof of injustice and partiality, 
of which a God who is equally just and good, 
would be entirely incapable. Let us now exa- 
mine, whether the ideas suggested to us by these 
books, containing the divine oracles, are more 
rational, more consistent, or more conformable 
to the divine perfections. Let us see whether 
the statements related in the Bible, whether the 
commands prescribed to us in the name of God 
himself, are really worthy of God, and display 
to us the characters of infinite wisdom, goodness, 
power and justice. 

These inspired books go back to the origin 
of the world. Moses, the confidant, the interpre- 
ter, the historian of the Deity, makes us, (if we 
may use such an expression) witnesses of the 
formation of the universe. He tells us, that the 
Eternal, tired of his inaction, took it into his 
head to create a world that was necessary to 
his glory. 



30 LETTERS TO EUOOTIA. 

To effect this, he forms matter out of nothing; 
a pure spirit produces a substance which has no 
affinity to himself; although this God fills all 
space with his immensity, yet still he found room 
enough in it to admit the . universe, as well as 
all the material bodies contained therein. 

These at least are the ideas which divines wish 
us to form, respecting the creation, if such a thing 
were possible, as that of possessing a clear idea 
of a pure spirit producing matter. But this 
discussion is throwing us into metaphysical re- 
searches which I wish to avoid. It will be suf- 
ficient to you that you may console yourself 
for not being able to comprehend it, seeing that 
the most profound thinkers who talk about the 
creation, or the eduction of the world from 
nothing, have no ideas on the subject more pre- 
cise than those which you form to yourself. 
As soon, Madam, as you take the trouble to 
reflect thereon, you will find that divines, instead 
of explaining things, have done nothing but in- ' 
vent words in order to render them dubious, and 
to confound all our natural conceptions. 

I will not, however, tire you by a fastidious 
display of the blunders which fill the narrative 
of Moses, which they announce to us as being 
dictated by the Deity. If we read it with a 
little attention, we shall perceive in every page, 
philosophical and astronomical errours, unpar- 
donable in an inspired author, and such as we 
should consider ridiculous in any man, who, in 
the most superficial manner, should have studied 
and contemplated nature. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 31 

' You "vvill find for example, light created be- 
fore the sun, although this star is visibly the 
source of light which communicates itself to our 
globe. You will find the evening and the morn- 
ing established before the formation of this same 
sun, whose presence alone produces day, whose 
absence produces night, and whose different 
aspects constitute morning and evening. You 
will there find that the moon is spoken of, as a 
body possessing its own light, in a similar man- 
ner as the sun possesses it, although this planet 
is a dark body and receives its light from the 
sun. These imorant blunders are sufficient to 
show you, that the Deity Vv^ho revealed himself 
to Moses, was quite 'unacquainted with the na- 
ture of those substances which he had created 
out of nothing, and that you at present possess 
more informatioun respecting them, than was 
once possessed by the Creator of the world. 

I am not ignorant that our divines have an 
answer always ready to those difficulties Vvhich 
w^ould attack their divine science, and place their 
knowledge far belov/ that of Galileo, Descartes, 
Newton, and even below that of young people, 
who have scarcely studied the first elements of 
natural philosophy. They will tell us that God 
in order to render himself intelligible to the 
• savage and ignorant Jews, spoke in conformity 
to their imperfect notions, in the false and incor- 
rect language of the vulgar. We must not be 
imposed upon by this solution, which our doctors 
regard as triumphant, and which they so fre- 
quentlv employ v/hcn it becomes necessary to 
2 



32 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

justify the Bible against the ignorance and vul- 
garities contained therein. We answer them, 
that a God who knows every thing, and can 
perform every thing, might by a single word, 
have rectified the false notions of the people he 
wished to enlighten, and enabled them to know 
the nature of bodies more perfectly than the 
most able men who have since appeared. — 
If it be replied that revelation is not intended to 
render men learned, but to make them pious, I 
answer that revelation was not sent to establish 
false notions, that it would be unworthy of God 
to borrow the language of falsehood and igno- 
rance ; that the knowledge of nature, so far 
from being an injury to piety, is by the avowal 
of divines, the most proper study to display the 
greatness of God. They tell us, that religion 
would be unmoveable, were it conformable to 
true knowledge, that we should have no objec- 
tions to make to the recital of Moses, nor to the 
philosophy of the Holy Scriptures, if we found 
nothing but what was continually confirmed by 
experience, astronomy, and the demonstrations 
of geometry. 

To maintain a contrary opinion, and to say 
that God is pleased in confounding the know- 
ledge of men and in rendering it useless, is to 
pretend that he is pleased with making us igno- 
rant and changeable, and that he condemns the 
progress of the human mind, although we ought 
to suppose him the author of it. To pretend 
that God was obliged in the scriptures to con- 
form himself to the language of men, is to pre- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 38 

tend that he withdrew his asssistence from those 
he wished to enlighten, and that he was unable 
of rendering them susceptible of comprehending 
the language of truth. This is an observation 
not to be lost sight of in the examination of re- 
velation, where we find in each page that God 
expresses himself in a manner quite unworthy 
of the Deity. ^|Could*not an omnipotent God, 
instead of degrading himself, instead of conde- 
scending to speak the language of ignorance, 
so far enlighten them as to make them under- 
stand /a language mpre,tru^,-^m5i:e noble, and 
mor^^'conformabletb tilfe' ideas wh^h are given 
us df the I|e^g?l ^i|gpgpj)eriencel master, by 
deg^e^ enables his scholars to ^gdferstand what 
he w\lieV to teach them, diisp^.^Jmod ought to be 
able to comjriuhrcate to them immediately, all 
the knowledge~lie intended to give them. 

However, according to Genesis, God, after 
creating the world produced man from the dust 
of the earth, • In the mean while we are as- 
sured that he created him in his own image ; 
I but what was the image of God ? ^ How could 
man, who is at least partly material, represent a 
pure spirit which excludes all matter ? 

^How could his imperfect mind be formed on 
the model of a mind possessing all perfection, 
Hke that which we suppose in the Creator of 
the universe ? i What resemblance, what pro- 
portion, what affinity could there be between a 
finite mind united to a body, and the infinite 
spirit of the Creator ? These, doubtless, are 
great difficulties ; hitherto it has been thought 



34 LETTEIIS TO EUGENIA. 

impossible to decide them ; and they will pro- 
bably, for a long time employ the minds of those 
who strive to understand the incomprehensible 
meanuig of a book, which God provided for our 
instruction. 

[But why did God create man? Because he 
wished to people the universe with intelligent 
beings who would render him homage, who 
should witness his wonders, who should glorify 
him, who should meditate and contemplate his 
works, and merit his favours by their submission 
to his laws. 

Here we behold man becoming necessary to 
the dignity of his God, who without him would 
live without being glorified, who would receive 
no homage, and who would be the melancholy 
Sovereign of an empire without subjects, a con- 
dition not suited to his vanity. I think it useless 
to remark to you what little conformity we find 
between those ideas, and such as are given us 
of a self-sufficient being, who, .without the as- 
sistance of any other, is supremely happy. All 
the characters in vdiich the Bible pourtrays the 
Deity, are always borrowed from man, or from 
• a proud monarch, and we every where find, that 
instead of having made man after his own image, 
it is man that has always made God after the 
image of himself, that has conferred on him his 
own way of thinking, his own virtues and his 
own vices. 

I But did this man whom the Deity has crea- 
ted for his glory, faithfully fulfil the wishes of 
his Creator; This subject that he has just 



^ 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 35 

acquired, will he be obedient, /, will he render ho- 
mage to his power, will he execute his will ? He 
has done nothing of the kind. Scarcely is he 
created when he becomes rebellious to the or- 
ders of his sovereign ; he eats a forbidden 
fruit which God has placed in his way in 
order to tempt him, and by this act, draws the 
divine wrath, not only on himself, but on all his 
posterity. Thus it is, that he annihilates at one 
blow the great projects of the omnipotent, who 
h-ad no sooner made man for his glory than he 
becomes offended with that conduct which he 
ought to have foreseen. 

I Here he finds himself obliged to change his 
projects with regard to mankind, he becomes 
their enemy, and condemns them and the whole 
of the race (who had not yet the power of sin- 
ning) to innumerable penalties, to cruel calami- 
ties, and to death ! ^ What do I say ? To punish- 
ments which death itself shall not terminate. 
Thus God, who wished to be glorified, is not 
glorified ; he seems to have created man only 
to offend him, that he might afterwards punish 
the offender. 

In this recital, which is founded on the Bible, 
• j^can you recognize. Madam, an omnipotent God, 
whose orders are always accomplished, and 
whose projects are all necessarily executed ? 
In a God who tempts us, or who permits us to 
be tempted, i do you behold a being of benefi- 
cence and sincerity ? ^ In a God who punishes 
the being he has tempted or subjected to temp- 
tation, do vou perceive any equity ? In a God 

2* 



36 liETTERS TO EUGENIA. '^^ 

who extends his vengeance even to those who 
have not sinned, [do you behold any shadow of 
justice ? In a God Vv^-ho is irritated at what he 
knew must necessarily happen, [can you imagine 
any foresight ? In the rigorous punishments by 
which this God is destined to avenge himself of 
his feeble creatures, both in this w^orld and the 
next, ['can you perceive the least appearance of 
goodness ? 

It is however this history, or rather this fable, 
on which is founded the whole edifice of the 
Christian religion. 

If the first man had not been disobedient, the 
human race had not been the object of the divine 
wrath, and w^ould have had no need of a re- 
deemer. If this God who knows all things, fore- 
sees all things, and possesses all power, had pre- 
vented or foreseen the fault of Adam, it would 
not have been necessary for God to sacrifice his 
own innocent son to appease his fury. Man- 
kind, for whom he created the universe, would 
then have been always happy ; they would not 
have incurred the displeasure of that Deity who 
dem.anded their adoration. In a word, if this 
apple had not been imprudently eaten by Adam 
and his spouse, mankind Vv^ould not have suffer- 
ed so much misery, man would have enjoyed 
without interruption, the immortal happiness to 
which God had destined him, and the views of 
Providence towards his creatures would not 
have been frustrated. 

It would be useless to make reflections on 
notions so whimsical, so contrary to the wisdom, 
the power, and the justice of the Deity. It is 



LETTEUS- TO UTTGENIA. 37 

doing quite enough to compare the different ob- 
jects which the Bible presents to us to perceive 
their inutihty, absurdities, and contradictions. 

• We there see, continually, a wise God conduct- 
ing himself hke a madman. He defeats his own 
projects that he may afterwards repair them ; 

' repents of what he has done ; acts as if he had 
foreseen nothing, and is forced to permit pro- 
ceedings which his omnipotence could not pre- 
vent. ~ In the w^ritings revealed by this God, he 
appears occupied only in blackening his own 
character, degrading himself, vilifying himself, 
even in the eyes of men v/hom he would excite 
to worship him and pay him homage ; overturn- 
ing and confounding the minds of those whom 
he had designed to enlighten. What has just 
been said, might suffice to undeceive us with 
respect to a book which would pass better as 
being intended to destroy the idea of a Deity, 
than as one containing the oracles dictated and 
revealed by him. Nothing but a heap of ab- 
surdities could possibly result from principles 
so false and irrational ; nevertheless, let us take 
another glance at the principal objects which 
this divine work continually offers to our con- 
sideration. Let us pass on to the deluge. The 
holy books tell us, that in spite of the wdll of the 
Almighty, the whole human race, who had al- 
ready been punished by infirmities, accidents 
and death, continued to give themselves up to 
the most unaccountable depravity. God be- 
comes irritated and repents having created 
them. Doubtless he could not have foreseen 
this depravity, yet, rather than change the wick- 



38 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

ed disposition of their hearts, which he holds in 

his own hands, he performs the most sm'prising, 
the most impossible of miracles. He at once 
drowns all the inhabitants, vrith the exception of 
some favourites, whom he destmes to re-people 
the earth with a chosen race, that will render 
themselves more agreeable to their God. [ But 
does the Almighty succeed in this new project ? 
The chosen race, saved from the waters of the 
deluge, on the wreck of the earth's destruction, 
begin again to offend the Sovereign of Nature, 
abandon themselves to new crmies, give them- 
selves up to idolatry, and forgetting the recent 
effects of celestial vengence, seem intent only 
on provoking heaven by their wickedness. In 
order to provide a remedy, God chooses for his 
favourite the idolater Abraham. To him he 
discovers himself; he orders him to renounce 
the worship of his fathers, and embrace a new 
religion. To guarantee this covenant, the Sove- 
reign of nature prescribes a melancholy, ridicu- 
lous and whimsical ceremony, to the observance 
of which a God of wisdom attaches his favours. 
The posterity of this chosen man are conse- 
quently to enjoy for everlasting, the greatest 
advantages ; they will always be the most par- 
tial object of tenderness with the Almighty ; 
they will be happier than all other nations whom 
the Deity will abandon to occupy liimself only 
for them. 

These solemn promises, however, have not 
prevented the race of Abraham from becoming 
the slaves of a vile nation, that was detested by 
the Eternal; his dear friends experienced the 



LETTERS TO ^UGE^'L\. 39 

no3t cruel treatment on the part of the Eg\'p- 
iians.' God could not guarantee them from the 
misfortune that had befallen them ; but in order 
to free them again, he raised up to them a hbera- 
tor, a chief, who performed the most astonish- 
-iig miracles. At the voice of Moses, all nature 
.s confounded ; God employs him to declare his 
will, yet he who could create and annihilate the 
world, could not subdue Pharaoh. The obsti- 
nacy of this Prince defeats in ten successive 
trials, the divine omnipotence of which Moses 
is the depositar}-. After having vainly attempt- 
ed to overcome a monarch," whose heart God 
had been pleased to harden^ God has recourse 
to the most ordinary m.ethod of rescuing his 
people'; he tells them to run off, after having 
first counselled them to rob the Eg\'ptians. The 
fagitives are pursued, but God, who protects 
these robbers, orders the sea to swallow up the 
miserable people, who had the temerity to run 
after their propert}'. 

The Deit}- would, doubtless, have reason to 
be satisfied with the conduct of a people that 
he had just delivered by such a great number 
of miracles, j Alas ! . Neither Moses nor the 
Almight}^, could succeed m persuading this ob- 
stinate people to abandon the false gods of that 
country' where they had been so miserable ; 
they preferred them to the living God who had 
just saved them. All the miracles which the 
Eternal was daily performing in favom' of Israel, 
could not overcome their stubbornness, which 
was still more inconceivable and wonderful than 
the greatest miracles. -These wonders wliich 



40 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

are now extolled as convincing proofs of the di- 
vine mission of Moses, v^ere by the confession 
of this same Moses, who has himself transmitted 
us the accounts, incapable of convincing the 
people v^ho v^ere w^itnesses of them, and never 
produced the good effects which the Deity pro- 
posed to himself in performing them. 

The credulity, the obstinacy, the continual 
depravity of the Jews, Madam, are the most in- 
dubitable proofs of the falsity of the miracles of 
Moses, as well as those of all his successors, to 
whom the Scriptures attribute a supernatural 
power. If in the face of these facts it be pre- 
tended that these miracles are attested, we shall 
be compelled, at least, to agree that, according 
to the Bible account, they have been entirely 
useless, that the Deity has been constantly baf- 
fled in all his prajects, and that he could never 
make of the Hebrews a people submissive to 
his will. 

We find, however, God continues obstinately 
employed to render his people worthy of him ; 
he does not lose sight of them for a moment ; he 
sacrifices whole nations to them, and sanctions 
their rapine, violence, treason, murder, and usur- 
pation. In a word, he permits them to do any 
thing to obtain his ends. 'He is continually send- 
ing them chiefs, prophets, and wonderful men, 
^ho try in vain to bring them to their duty. 
The whole history of the Old Testament dis- 
plays nothing but the vain efibrts of God to van- 
quish the obstinacy of his people. To succeed 
in this, he employs kindnesses, miracles, and 
severity. Sometimes he delivers up to them 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 41 

whole nations to be hated, pillaged, and exter- 
minated ; at other times he permits these same 
pations to exercise over his favourite people the 
greatest of cruelties. He delivers them into the 
hand of their enemies, who are likewise the ene- 
mies of God himself. Idolatrous nations become 
masters of the Jews, w^ho are left to feel the in- 
sults, the contempt, and the most unheard-of 
severities, and are sometimes compelled to sa- 
crifice to idols, and to violate the law of their 
•God. The race of Abraham becomes the prey 
of impious nations. The Assyrians, Persians, 
Greeks, and Romans, make them successively 
undergo the most cruel treatment, and suffer the 
most bloody outrages, and God even permits 
his temple to be polluted in order to punish the 
Jews. 

To terminate, at length, the troubles of his 
cherished people, the pure Spirit that created 
the universe, sends his own son. It is said that 
he had already been announced by his prophets, 
though this was certainly done in a manner ad- 
mirably adapted to prevent his being known on 
his arrival. This Son of God becomes a man 
through his kindness for the Jews, whom he 
came to liberate, to enlighten, and to render the 
most happy of mortals. Being clothed with di- 
vine omnipotence, he performs the most aston- 
ishing miracles, which do not, however, convince 
the Jews. He can do every thing but convert 
them. Instead of converting and liberating the 
Jews, he is himself compelled, notwithstanding 
all his miracles, to undergo the most infamous 
oi punishments, and to terminate his life like a 




42 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

common malefactor. 'God is condemned to death 
by the people he came to save. The Eternal 
hardened and blinded those among whom he 
sent his own Son ; he did not foresee that this 
Son would be rejected, i What do I say ? He 
managed matters in such a w^ay as not to be re- 
cognized, and took such steps that his favourite 
people derived no benefit from the coming of the 
Messiah. In a w^ord, the Deity seem.s to have 
taken the greatest care that his projects, so fa- 
vourable to the Jews, should be nulhfied and 
rendered unprofitable. 

When we expostulate against a conduct so 
strange and so unv/orthy of the Deity, we are 
told it was necessary for every thing to take 
place in such a manner, for the accomplishment 
of prophecies, which had announced that the 
Messiah should be disowned, rejected, and put 
to death, i But why did God, who knows all, 
and who foresaw the fate of his dear Son, form 
the project of sending him among the Jews, to 
whom he must have known that his mission 
would be useless ? i Would it not have been 
easier neither to announce him nor send him ? 
I Would it not have been more conformable to 
divine omnipotence, to spare himself the trouble 
of so many miracles, so many prophecies, so 
much useless labour, * so much wrath, and so 
many sufferings to his own Son, by giving at 
once to the human race that degree of perfec- 
tion he intended for them ? 

We are told it was necessary that the Deity 
should have a victim ; that to repair the fault of 
the first man, no expedient would be sufficient 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 43 

. but the death of another God ; that the only God 
of the universe could not be appeased but by 
the blood of his own Son. I reply, in the first 
place, that God had only to prevent the first njan 
from committing a fault ; that this w^ould have 
spared him much chagrin and sorrow, and saved 
the life of his dear Son. I reply, Hkewise, that 
man is incapable of offending God unless God 
either permitted it, or consented to it. I shall 
not examine how it is possible for God to have 
a son, who being as much a God as himself, can 
be subject to death. I reply, also, that it is im- 
possible to perceive such a grave fault and sin 

• in taking an apple ; and that we can find very 
little proportion between the crime committed 
against the Deity by eating an apple, and his 
Son's death. 

• I know well enough, I shall be told that these 
are all mysteries ; but I in my turn shall reply, 
that mysteries are imposing words, imagined by 
men who know not how to get themselves out 
of the labyrinth, into which their false reason- 
ings ar;d senseless principles have once plunged 
them. 

Be this as it may, we are assured that the 
Messiah or the Deliverer of the Jews, had been 
clearly predicted and described, by the prophe- 
cies contained in the Old Testament. In this 
case, ? I demand why the Jews have disowned 
this wonderful man, this God w^hom God sent to 
them? They answer me, that the incredulity 
of the Jews was likew^ise predicted, and that 
divers inspired writers had announced the death 
of the Son of God. To which I reply, that a 
3 



44 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

sensible God ought not to have sent him under 
such circumstances, that an omnipotent God 
ought to have adopted measures m.ore effica- 
cious and certain, to bring his people into the 
way in which he wished them to go. If he 
wished not to convert, and liberate the Jews, it 
was quite useless to send his Son among them, 
and thereby expose him to a death that was 
both certain and foreseen. 

They will not fail to tell me, that in the end, 
the Divine patience became tired of the excesses 
of the Jews ; that the immutable God, who had 
. sworn an eternal alhance with the race of Abra- 
ham, wished at length to break the treaty, which 
he had, however, assured them should iast for 
ever. It is pretended that God had determined 
to reject the Hebrew nation, in order to adopt 
the Gentiles, whom he had hated and despised 
nearly four thousand years. I reply, that this 
discourse is very little conformable to the ideas 
we ought to have of a God who changes not, 
whose mercy is infinite, and whose goodness is 
inexhaustible. I shall tell them, that in this case, 
the Messiah announced by the Jewish prophets 
was destined for the Jews, and that lie ought to 
have been their liberator, instead of destroying 
their worship, and their religion. If it be possible 
to unravel anything in these obscure, enigmatical, 
and symbolical oracles of the prophets of Judea, 
as we find them in the Bible ; if there be any means 
of guessing the meaning of theobscure riddles,' 
which have been decorated with the pompous 
name of prophecies, we shall perceive that the in- 
spired writers, when they are in a good humour. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 4& 

always promise the Jews, a man that will re- 
dress their grievances, restore the kingdom of 
Judah, and not one that should destroy the re- 
ligion of Moses, • If it were for the Gentiles that 
the Messiah should come, he is no longer the 
Messiah promised to the Jews, and announced 
by their prophets. If Jesus be the Messiah of 
the Jews, he could not be the destroyer of their 
nation. 

Should I be told, that Jesus himself declared 
that he came to fulfil the law of Moses, and not 
to abolish it, I ask, i why Christians do not ob- 
serve the law of the Jews ? 

Thus, in whatever light we regard Jesus 
Christ, we perceive that he could not be the 
man w^hom the prophets have predicted, since 
it is evident that he came only to destroy the 
religion of the Jews, which though instituted by 
God himself, had nevertheless become disagree- 
able to him. If this inconstant God, who was 
w^earied with the w^orship of the Jews, had at 
length repented of his injustice towards the 
Gentiles, it was to them that he ought to have 
sent his Son. By acting in this way, he would 
at least, have saved his old friends from a fright- 
ful deicide which he forced them to commit, be- 
cause they were not able to recognize the God 
he sent amongst them. Besides, the Jews were 
very pardonable in not acknowledging their ex- 
pected Messiah, in an artisan of Galilee, who 
was destitute of all the characteristics w^hich 
the prophets had related, and during whose life- 
time his fellow-citizens were neither liberated 
nor happy. 



46 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

We are told that he performed miracles. He 
healed the sick ; caused the lame to walk ; gave 
sight to the blind, and raised the dead. At length 
he accomplished his own resurrection. It might 
be so believed ; yet, he has visibly failed in that 
miracle, for which alone he came upon earth. 
He was never able either to persuade or to con- 
vert the Jews, who witnessed all the daily won- 
ders that he performed. Notwithstanding tliose 
prodigies, they placed him ignominiously on the 
cross. In spite of his divine power, he was in- 
capable of escaping punishment. He wished to 
die, to render the Jews culpable, and to have the 
pleasure of rising again the third day, in order 
to confound the ingratitude and obstinacy of his 
fellow-citizens, i What is the result ? i Did his 
fellow-citizens concede to this great miracle, and 
have they at length acknowledged him ? Far 
from it ; they never saw him. The Son of God, 
who rose from the dead in secrecy, showed him- 
self only to his adherents. They alone pretend 
to have conversed with him. They alone have 
furnished us with the particulars of his life and 
miracles, and yet by such suspicious testimony, 
they wish to convince us of the divinity of his 
mission, eighteen hundred years after the event, 
although he could not convince his cotempora- 
ries the Jews. 

We are then told, that many Jews have been 
converted to Jesus Christ ; that after his death 
many others were converted ; that the witnesses 
of the life and miracles of the Son of God, have 
sealed their testimony with their blood ; that 
men will not die to attest falsehood ; that by a 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 47 

\*lsible effect of the divine power, the people of 
a great part of the earth have adopted Chris- 
tianity, and still persist in the belief of this divine 
religion. 

In all this I perceive nothing like a nniracle. 
I see nothing but what is conformable to the 
ordinary progress of the human mind. An en- 
thusiast, a dexterous impostor, a crafty juggler, 
can easily find adherents in a stupid, ignorant, 
and superstitious populace. These followers, 
captivated by counsels, or seduced by promises, 
consent to quit a painful and laborious life, to 
follow a man v/ho gives them to understand that 
he will make themjishers of men; that is to say, 
he will enable them to subsist by his cunning 
tricks, at the expense of the multitude who are 
always credulous. The juggler, with the assis- 
tance of his remedies, can perform cures which 
seem, miraculous to ignorant spectators. These 
simple creatures immediately regard him as a 
supernatural being. He adopts this opinion 
himself, and confirms the high notions which 
his partisans have formed respecting him. He 
feels himself interested in maintaining this opin- 
ion among his sectaries, and finds out the secret 
of exciting their enthusiasm. To accomplish 
this point, our Empirick becomes a preacher ; 
he makes use of riddles, obscure sentences, and 
parables to the multitude, that always admire 
what they do not understand. To render him- 
self more agreeable to the people, he declaims 
among poor, ignorant, foolish men, against the 
rich, the great, the learned ; but above all, against 
the priestSjWhb in all ages, have been avaricious, 
3* 



48 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

imperious, itncharitaile, and burthensome to the 
people. If these discourses be eagerly received 
among the vulgar, who are always morose, en- 
vious, and jealous, they displease-all those who 
see themselves the objects of the invective and 
satire of the popular preacher. 

They consequently wish to check his pro- 
gress, they lay snares for him, they seek to sur- 
prize him in a fault, in order that they may tm- 
mask him and have their revenge. By dint of 
imposture he outwits them ; yet, in consequence 
of his miracles and illusions, he at length disco- 
vers himself. -He is then seized and punished, 
and none of his adherents abide by him, except 
a few idiots that nothing can undeceive ; noile- 
but partisans accustomed to lead with him a life 
of idleness; none but dexterous ' knaves who 
wish to continue their impositions on the public* 
by deceptions similar to those of their old mas- 
ter, by obscure, unconnected, confused, and fa- 
natical harangues, and by declamations against 
viagisb^ates and priests. These who have the 
power in their own hands, finish by persecuting 
them, imprisoning them, flogging them, chastis- 
ing them, and putting them to death. Poor 
wretches habituated to poverty, undergo all 
these sufferings with a fortitude which we fre- 
quently meet with in malefactors. In some we 
find their courage fortified by the zeal of fanati- 
cism. This fortitude surprizes, agitates, excites 
pity, and irritates the spectators against those 
who torment men, whose constancy makes them 
looked upon as being innocent, who it is suppos- 
ed, may possibly be right, and for whom com- 



LETTERS TO EITGENIA. 49 

pnssioii likewise interests itself. It is thus, that 
enthusiasm is propagated, and that persecution 
•always augments the number of the partisans of 
those who are persecuted. 

I shall leav-e to you^ Madam, the trouble of 
applying the history of our juggler, and his ad- 
herents, to that of the founder, the apostles, and 
die martyrs of the Christian religion. 

With whatever art they have written the life 
■of Jesus Christ, which we hold only from his 
apostles, or their disciples, it furnishes a suffi- 
<:iency of materials on which to found our con- 
jectures, I shall only observe to you, that the 
•Jewish nation was remarkable for its credulity; 
that the companions of Jesus were chosen from 
among the dregs of the people ; that Jesus al- 
ways gave a preference to the populace ; with 
whom he wished, doubtlessly, to form a rampart 
against the priests ; and that, at last, Jesus was 
seized immediately after the most splendid of 
his miracles. We see him put to death imme- 
diately after the resurrection of Lazarus, which^ 
even according to the Gospel account, bears the 
most evident characters of fraud, which are 
visible to every one who examines it without 
prejudice. 

I imagine. Madam, that what I have just stated 
will suffice to show you what opinion you ought 
to entertain respecting the founder of Christianity 
and his first sectaries. These have been either 
dupes or fanatics, who permitted theniselves to 
be seduced by deceptions, and by discourses 
conformable to their desires, or by dexterous 
impostors, who knew how to make the best of 



60 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the tricks of their old master, to whom they have 
become such able successors. In this way did 
they estabhsh a reUgion wliich enabled them to 
live at the people's expence, and which still 
• maintains in abundance, those we pay at such 
a high rate, for transmitting from father to son 
the fables, visions, and wonders, which were 
born and nursed in Judea. The propagation 
of the Christian faith, and the constancy of their 
martyrs, have nothing surprizing in them. The 
people flock after all those that show them won- 
ders, and receive without reasoning on it, every 
thing that is told them. They transmit to their 
children the tales they have heard related, and 
by degrees these opinions are adopted by kings, 
by the great, and even by the learned. 

As for the martyrs, their constancy has no^ 
thing supernatural in it. The first Christians, 
as well as all nev/ sectaries, were treated by the 
Jews and Pagans, as disturbers of the public 
peace. They were already sufficiently intoxi- 
cated with the fanaticism with which their reli- 
gion inspired them ; and were persuaded that 
God held himself in readiness to crown them, 
and to receive them into his eternal dwelling. 
In a word, seeing the heavens opened, and being 
convinced that the end of the world was ap- 
proaching, it is not surprizing that they had 
courage to set punishment at defiance, to endure 
it with constancy, and to despise death. To 
these motives, founded on their religious opin- 
ions, many others were added, which are always 
of such a nature, as to operate strongly upon 
the minds of men. Those, who as Christians 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 61 

x^^ere imprisoned, and ill-treated on account of 
their faith, were visited, consoled, encouraged, 
honoured, and loaded with kindnesses by their 
brethren, who took care of, and succoured them 
during their detention, and who almost adored 
them after their death. Those, on the other 
hand, who displayed weakness, were despised 
and detested, and when they gave way to re- 
pentance, they were compelled to undergo a 
rigorous penitence, which lasted as long as they 
lived. Thus were the most pov/erful motives 
united to inspire the martyrs with courage ; and 
this courage has nothing more supernatural 
about it, than that which determines us daily to 
encounter the most perilous dangers, through 
the fear of dishonouring ourselves in the eyes 
of our fellow-citizens. Cowardice would expose 
us to infamy all the rest of our days, There is 
•nothing miraculous in the constancy of a man, 
to whom an offer is made, on the one hand^ of 
eternal happiness, and the highest honours ; and 
who, on the other hand, sees himself menaced 
with hatred, contempt, and the most lasting re- 
gret. 

You perceive then, Madam, that nothing can 
be easier, than to overthrow the proofs by 
which Christian doctors establish the revela- 
tion, which they pretend is so well authentica- 
ted. Miracles, martyrs, and prophecies, prove 
nothing. 

Were all the wonders true, that are related 
in the Old and New Testament, they would 
afford no proof in favour of divine omnipotence, 
but, on the contrary, would prove the inability 



62 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

under which the Deity has continually labour- 
ed, of convincing mankind of the truths he wish- 
ed to announce to them. On the other hand, 
supposing these miracles to have produced all 
the effects which the Deity had a right to ex- 
pect from them, we have no longer any rea- 
son to believe them, except on the tradition 
and recitals of others, which are often suspi- 
cious, faulty, and exaggerated. The miracles 
of Moses, are attested only by Moses, or by Jew- 
ish writers, interested in making them believed 
by the people they wished to govern. The 
miracles of Jesus are attested only by his dis- 
ciples, who sought to obtain adherents, in relat- 
ing to a credulous people, prodigies to which 
they pretended to have been witnesses, or which 
some of them perhaps, believed they had really 
seen. All those who deceive mankind are not 
always cheats, they are frequently deceived by 
those who are knaves in reaUty. Besides, I be- 
lieve I have sufficiently proved, that miracles 
are repugnant to the essence of an immutable 
God, as well as to his wisdom, which will not 
permit him to alter the wise laws he lias him- 
self estabhshed. In short, miracles are useless, 
since those related in Scripture have not pro- 
duced the effects whichGod expected from them. 
The proof of the Christian religion taken from 
prophecy, has no better foundation. Whoever 
will examine without prejudice these oracles 
pretended to be divine, will find only an am- 
biguous, unintelligible, absurd, and unconnected 
jargon, entirely unworthy of a God who intends 
ed to display his prescience, and to instruct hi« 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 53 

|!)eople with regard to future events. There 
does not exist in the Holy Scripture^ a single 
prophecy sufficiently precise, to be Aterally ap- 
plied to Jesus Christ. To c(?nvince your- 
self of this truth, ask the most learned of 
our doctors, i which arethe /ormal prophecies, 
wherein they have the K^ppiness to discover 
the Messiah ? You \y^^ then perceive, that it 
is only by the aid of f^i'ced explanations, figures, 
parables, and myst^^al interpretations, by which 
they are enabled to bring forward any thing 
sensible and applicable to the ' god-made-man 

■ who they ^^ell us to adore. 'It would seem as 
if the I^ity had made predictions only that we 
inigK understand nothing about them. 

In these equivocal oracles, whose meaning it 
IS impossible to penetrate, we find nothing but 
the language of intoxication, fanaticism, and de- 

'lirium. When we fancy we haA^e found some- 
thing intelligible, it is easy to perceive that the 
prophets intended to speak of events that took 
place in their own age, or of personages who 
had preceded them. It is thas, that our doctors 
apply gratuitously to Christ, prophecies, or rather 
narratives of w^hat happened respecting David, 
Solomon, Cyrus, &c. 

We imagine we see the chastisement of the 
Jewish people announced in recitals, where it 
is evident the only matter in question was the 
Babylonish captivity. In this event, so long 
prior to Jesus Christ, they have imagined find- 
ing a prediction of the dispersion of the Jews, 
supposed to be a visible punishment for their 
deicide, and which they now wish to pass off 



54 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

as an indubitable proof of the truth of Chrfe- 
tianity. 

It is not. then astonishing, that the ancient and 
modern Jevs do not see in the prophets' what 
our doctors te^ch us, and what they themselves 
imagine they ha^e seen* Jesus himself has not 
been more happy u his predictions than his pre- 
decessors. In the gt»spel he announces to his 
disciples in the most i^rmal manner, the de- 
struction of the world, ai4 the last judgment^ 
as events that were at hana, and which must 
take place before the existing generation had 
' passed away. Yet, the world stili endures, and 
appears in no danger of finishing. It is true^ 
our doctors pretend, that in the predication of 
Jesus Christ, he spoke of the ruin of Jerusalem 
by Vespasian and Titus ; but none but those 
who have not read the gospel would submit ta 
such a change, or satisfy themselves with such 
an evasion. Besides, in adopting it, we must 
confess at least, that the Son of God himself was 
unable to prophesy with greater precision than 
his obscure predecessors. 

Indeed, at every page of these sacred books, 
which w^e are assured were inspired by God 
himself, this God seems to have made a revela- 
tion only to conceal himself. • He does not speak 
but to be misunderstood. He announces his 
oracles in such a way only that we can nei- 
ther comprehend them, nor make any appli- 
cation of them. He performs miracles only to 
make unbelievers. He manifests himself to man- 
kind only to stupify their judgment, and bewilder 
the reason he had bestowed on them. The Bible 



■ 



LETTERS TO EUOENIA, 63 

^OHtiiMally represents God to us, as a seducer, 
an enticer, a su>spiGio«s tyrant, who knows not 
what ki-nd of ^ondiict to observe with respect to 
his -subleGts-; who amuses himself by laying 
snares for his creatures, and who tries them that 
he may hav-e the pleasure of inflicting a punish- 
ment for y^Iding to his temptations. This God 
is occupied only in building to destroy, in demo- 
lishir^g to rebuild. Like a child disgusted with its 
play-things, he is continually undoing what he has 
done, and breaking what was the object of his de- 
isires. We find no foresight, no constancy, no con- 
sistency in his conduct ; no connection, no clear- 
ness in his discourses. When he performs any 
thing, he sometimes approves what he has done, 
and at other times repents of it. He irritates and 
vexes himself with what he has permitted to be 
done, and in spite of his infinite power, he suffers 
man to offend him, and consents to let Satan, his 
■ creature, derange all his projects. In a w^ord, 
the revelations of the Christians and' Jews seem 
to have been imagined only to render uncer- 
tain, and to annihilate the qualities attributed 
to the Deity, and which are declared to consti- 
tute his essence. The whole Scripture, the en- 
tire system of the Christian religion, appears to 
be founded only on the incapability of God, who 
was unable to render the human rac'e as wise, 
as good, and as happy, as he wished them. The 
death of his innocent Son, who. was immolated 
to his vengeance, is entirely us^eless for the most 
numerous portion of the earth's inhabitants ; al- 
most the whole human race, in spite of the con- 
tinual efforts of the Deity, continue to offend 
IQ 



56 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

him, to frustrate his designs, resist his will, and 
to persevere in their wickedness. 

It is on notions so fatal^ so contradictory, and 
so unworthy of a God who is just, wise, and 
good ; of a God that is rational, independent, im- 
mutable, and omnipotent, on whom the Christian 
rehgion is founded, and which religion is said to 
be established for ever, by God, who neverthe- 
less became disgusted with the religion of the 
Jew^s, with whom he had made and sworn ar* 
eternal covenant. 

Time must prove whether God be more con- 
stant and faithful in fulfilling his engagements 
with the Christians, than he has been to fulfil 
those he made with Abraham and his posterity. 
I confess. Madam, that his past conduct, alarms 
me as to what he may finally perform. ■ If he 
himself acknowledged by the mouth of Ezekiel^ 
that the laws he had given to the Jews were not 
good; he may very possibly, some day or other^ 
find fault with those which he has given to- 
Christians, 

Our priests, themselves, seem to partake of 
my suspicions, and to fear that God will be 
wearied of that protection, which he has so long' 
granted to his church. The inquietudes which 
they evince, the efforts which they make to hin- 
der the civilization of the world ; the persecu- 
tions which they raise against all those who 
contradict them, seem to prove that they mis- ^ 
trust the promises of Jesus Christ, and that they 
are not certainly convinced of the eternal dura- 
bility of a religion which does not appear to 
them divine, but, because it gives tliem the right 



I 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 57 

to command like gods, over their fellow-citizens. 
It would be, without doubt, exceedingly disa- 
greeable to them, were their empire overthrown ; 
however, it is only through fear, that both the 
sovereigns and people of the earth have endur- 
ed their yoke so long: the sovereign of heaven 
is already sufficiently disgusted with them. 

May I then dare to hope, Madam, that the 
reading of this letter vv^ill undeceive you effect- 
ually, respecting a blind veneration for books 
which they call divine, seeing they appear to 
have been written rather to degrade and lessen 
the character of the Deity, than to prove him 
their author. In my first letter, I trust you see 
that the dogmas established by those books, or 
invented long since to justify the ideas they give 
us of the Deity, are not less contradictory than 
our notions of that Being are infinitely perfect. 
"A system which sets out with false principles, 
can never end but in a mass of falsehoods. 

I am. &c. 



LETTER IV. 

You know, Madame, that our teachers pre- 
tend that those revealed books which I have 
summarily examined in my preceding letter, do 
not contain one word, which is not by the in- 
spiration of the spirit of God. What I have said 
to you ought, therefore, on this supposition to 
prove, ' that the Divinity has made a work the 
most mis-shapen, the most contradictory, the 



68 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

most unintelligible that has ever existed ; in a 
word, a work of which any man of sense would 
blush to be the author. If any prophecy hath 
verified itself for the Christians, it is that of 
Isaiah, which saith, *' Hearing ye shall hear, but 
shall not understand." But in this case, we re- 
ply that it was sufficiently useless to speak not 
to be comprehended, to reveal that which can- 
not be comprehended, is to reveal nothing. 

We need not, then, be surprised if the Chris- 
tians, notwithstanding the revelation of which 
they assure us they have been the favourites, 
have no precise ideas either of the Divinity, or 
of His will, or the way in which His oracles are 
to be interpreted. The book from which they 
should be able to do so, serves only to confound 
the simplest notions, to throw them into the 
greatest incertitude, and create eternal disputa- 
tions. If it was the project of the Divinity, it 
would without doubt, be attended with perfect 
success. The teachers of Christianity never- 
agree on the manner in which they are to un- 
derstand the truths, that God has given himself 
the trouble to reveal ; all the efforts which they 
have employed to this time, have not yet been 
capable of making any thing clear, and the dog- 
mas which they have successively invented, 
have been insufficient to justify to the under- 
standing of one man of good sense, the conduct 
of an infinitely perfect Being. 

Hence, many among them perceiving the in- 
conveniencies which would result from the read- 
ing of the holy books, have carefully kept them 
out of the hands of the vulgar and illiterate ; for 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 59 

they plainly foresaw, that if they were read by 
such, they would necessarily bring on themselves 
reproach, since it would never fail that every 
honest man of good sense, would discover in 
those books only a crowd of absurdities. Thus, 
the oracles of God are not even made for those 
for whom they are addressed ; it is requisite to 
be initiated in the mysteries of priesthood, to 
have the privilege of discerning in the holy 
writings, the light which the divinity destined 
to ali his dear children, i But, are the theolo- 
gians themselves able to make plain the difficul- 
ties which the sacred books present in every 
page ? By meditating on the mysteries which 
they contain ; i have they given us ideas more 
plain of the intentions of the divinity ? No ; 
without doubt, they explain one mystery by 
citing another ; they scatter new obscurities 
on previous obscurities ; rarely do they agree 
among themselves, and v/hen by chance their 
opinions coincide, 7ve are not more enlightened, 
nor is our judgment more convinced ; on the 
other hand, our reason is the more confounded. 
If they do agree on some point, it is only to tell 
us that' human reason, of which God is the au- 
thor, is depraved; ^but what is the purport of 
this coincidence in their opinions, if it be not to 
tax the Deity with imbecility, injustice, and ma- 
lignity ? I For why should God, in creating a 
reasonable being, not have given him an under- 
standing which nothing could corrupt ? They 
reply to us, by saying : V that the reason of man 
is necessarily limited ; that perfection could not 
be the portion of a creature ; that the designs of 
10^ 



60 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

God are not like those of man." But, in this 
case, I why should the Divinity be offended by 
the necessary imperfections which he discovers 
in his creatures ? -^ How can a just God require 
that our mind must admit what it was not made 
to comprehend? ^Can He, who is above our 
reason, be understood by us, whose reason is so 
limitpd ? I If God be infinite, how can a finite 
creature reason respecting him ? ^ If the mys- 
tefies and hidden designs of the Divinity are of 
such a nature as not to be comprehended by 
man, what good can w^e derive from their inves- 
tigation? I Had God designed that we should 
occupy our thoughts with his purposes, would 
he not have given us an understanding propor- 
tionate to the things he wished us to penetrate ? 
' You see then, Madam, that in depressing our 
l^eason, in supposing it corrupted, our priests, at 
the same time, annihilate even the necessity of 
religion, which cannot be either useful or impor- 
tant to us, if above our comprehension. They 
do EQore, in supposing human reason depraved, 
they acQuse God of injustice, in requiring that 
our reason should conceive what cannot be con- 
ceived. They accuse Him of imbecihty in not 
rendering this reason more perfect.- ■ In a word, 
in degrading man, they degrade God, and rob 
him of those attributes which compose his es- 
sence. ^ Would you call him a just and good 
parent, who, wishing that his children should 
walk by an obscure route filled with difficulties, 
would only give them for their conduct a light 
too weak to find their way, and to avoid the 
continual dan^^^ers bv which thev are surround- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 61 

ed ? ~ Should you find that this father had fore- 
seen their actual situation, but had given them 
written instructions, which were both unintelli- 
gible and inadequate for their guidance, [ would 
you not pronounce him weak and designing, or 
renounce any report that drew such a picture 
of a parent ? 

The priests do not, however, offend us when 
they say that the corruption of reason and the 
weakness of the human mind are the conse- 
quences of sin. I But why has man become 
sinful ? I How has the good God permitted his 
dear children, for whom he created the universe, 
and of whom he exacts obedience, to offend him, 
and thereby extinguish, or, at least, weaken the 
light he had given them ? On the other hand, 
the reason of Adam ought to be, without doubt, 
completely perfect before his fall. In this case, 
^why did it not prevent that fall and its conse- 
quences ? I Was the reason of Adam corrupt- 
ed even beforehand by incurring the wrath of 
his God ? I Was it depraved before he had done 
any thing to deprave it ? 

• To justify this strange conduct of Providence ; 
to cleer him from passing as the author of sin ; 
to save him the ridicule of being the cause, or 
the accomplice of offences which he did against 
himself, the theologians have imagined a being 
subordinate to the divine power. It is the se- 
condary being they make the author of all the 
evil which is committed in the universe. In the 
impossibility of reconciling the continual disor- 
ders of which the world is the theatre, with the 
purposes of a Deity replete with goodness, the 



62 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

creator and preserver of the universe, who de- 
lights in order, and who seeks only the happi- 
ness of his creatures, they have trumped up a 
destructive genius, imbued with wickedness, 
who conspires to render men miserable, and 
to overthrow the beneficient views of the Eter- 
nal. This bad and perverse being they call 
Satan, the Devil, the Evil Owe-r-and we see him 
play a great game in all the religions of the 
world, the founders of which have found in the 
impotence of Deity, the sources of both good 
and evil. - By the aid of this imaginary being, 
they have been enabled to resolve all their diffi- 
culties ; yet they could not foresee that this in- 
vention, which went to annihilate or abridge the 
power of Deity, was a system filled with palpa- 
ble contradictions, and that if the Devil were 
really the author of sin, it would be he; in all 
justice, who ought to undergo all its punish- 
ment. 

If God is the author of all, it is he who created 
the Devil ; if the Devil is wicked, if he strives 
to counteract the projects of the Divinity, it is 
the Divinity who has allowed the overthrow of 
his projects, or who has not had sufficient autho- 
rity to prevent the Devil from exercising his 
power. If God had wished that the Devil should 
not have existed, the Devil would not have ex- 
isted. God could annihilate him at one word, 
or, at least, God could change his disposition if 
injurious to us, and contrary to the projects of a 
beneficient Providence. Since, then, the Devil 
does exist, and does such marvellous things as 
are attributed to him, we are compelled to con- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 63 

elude, that the Divinity has found it good that he 
should exist and agitate, as he does, all his 
works by a perpetual interruption and perver- 
sion of his designs, 

Thus, Madam, the invention of the Devil does not 
remedy the evil; on the contrary, it but entangles 
- the priests more and more. By placing to Satan's 
account all the evil which he commits in the 
world, they exculpate the Deity of nothing ; all 
the power with which they have supposed the 
Devil invested, is taken from that assigned to the 
Divinity; and you know very well, that accord- 
ing to the notions of the Christian religion, the 
Devil has more adherents than God himself; 
they are always stirring their fellow-creatures 
up to revolt against God ; without ceasing, in 
despite of God, Satan leads them into perdition, 
except one man only, who refused to follow him, 
and who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. 
You are not ignorant, that the millions that fol- 
low the standard of Beelzebub are to be plunged 
with him into eternal misery. 

But then i has Satan himself incurred the dis- 
grace of the all-powerful ? ^ By what forfeit has 
he merited becoming the eternal object of the 
anger of that God who created him ? The Chris- 
tian religion will explain all. It informs us, that 
the Devil was in his origin an angel ; that is to 
say, a pure spirit full of perfections, created by 
the Divinity to occupy a distinguishing situation 
in the celestial court, destined hke the other mi- 
nisters of the Eternal, to receive his orders, and 
to enjoy perpetual blessedness. But he lost 
himself through ambition ; his pride blinded him, 



64 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

and he dared to revolt against his creator; he 
engaged other spirits, as pure as himself, in the 
same senseless enterprize ; m consequence of 
his rashness he was hurled headlong out of hea- 
ven, his miserable adherents v^ere involved in 
his fall, and having been hardened by the Di- 
vine pleasure in their foolish dispositions, they 
have no other occupation assigned them in the 
universe than to tempt mankind, and endeavour 
to augment the number of the enemies of God, 
and the victims of his wrath. 

It is by the assistance of this fable, that the 
Christian doctors perceive the fall of Adam, pre- 
pared by the Almighty himself, anterior to the 
creation of the world. [Was it necessary that 
the Divinity should entertain a great desire that 
man might sin, since he would thereby have an 
opportunity of providing the means of making 
him sinful ? In effect, it was the Devil who, in 
process of time, covered with the skin of a ser- 
pent,* solicited the mother of the human race 
to disobey God, and involve her husband in her 
rebellion. But the difficulty is not removed by 
these inventions. [If Satan, in the time he was 
an angel, lived in innocence, and merited the 
good will of his Maker, how came God to suffer 
him to entertain ideas of pride, ambition, and 
rebellion ? How came this angel of light so 
blind as not to see the folly of such an enter- 
prize? I Did he not know that his Creator was 
all-powerful ? i Who was it that tempted Satan? 

* Naturalists tell us the serpent casts its skin. 
I Did Satan creep into the skin of one ? 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 65 

' ^'What reason had the Divinity for selecting him 
to be the object of his fury, the destroyer of his 
projects, the enemy of his power? If pride be 
a sin, if the idea itself of rebellion is the greatest 
of crimes, sin was, then, anterior to sin, and Lu- 
cifer offended God, j even in his state of purity ! 
for, in fine, a being pure, innocent, agreeable ta 
his God, who had all the perfections of which a 
creature could be susceptible, ought to be ex- 
empt from ambition, pride, and folly. We ought, 
also, to say as much for our first parent, who, 
notwithstanding his wisdom, his innocence, and 
the knowledge infused into him by God himself, 
could not prevent himself from falling into the 
temptation of a demon. 

~ • Hence, in every shift, the priests invariably 
make God the author of sin. It was God who 
temipted Lucifer before the creation of the 
world ; Lucifer, in his turn, became the tempter 
of man, and the cause of all the evil our race 
suffers. It appears, therefore, that God created 
both angels and men to give them an opportu- 
nity of sinning. 

It is easy to perceive the absurdity of this 
system, to save which the theologians have in- 
vented another still more absurd, that it might 
become the foundation of all their religious re- 
velations, and by means of which they idly 
imagine they can fully justify the divine provi- 
dence. The system of truth supposes the free will 
of man — that he is his own master, capable of 
doing good or ill, and of directing his own plans. 
At the words^ree will, I already perceive. Ma- 
dam, that you tremble, and doubtless anticipate 



60 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

a metaphysical dissertation. Rest assured of the 
contrary ; for I flatter myself that the question 
will be simplified and rendered clearj I shall not 
merely say for you, but for all your sex, who 
are not resolved to be wilfully blind. 

To say that man is a free agent, say' the 
priests, is to detract from the power of the Su- 
preme Being, to pretend that God is not the 
master of his will ; to encourage a weak crea- 
ture to revolt against his creator, to derange his 
planSj to disturb the order in which he delights, 
to render his works useless, and thereby excite 
in him passions, and wrath, like what we see 
among ourselves. Thus^ at first sight, you dis- 
cover from this principle, a crowd of absurd- 
ities. If God is the friend of order, all who are 
his creatures ought necessarily to be inspired to 
maintain order ; without this, the divine will 
ceases to have its effect. If God has his own 
plans, they ought always, and of necessity, to be 
executed ; if man has the power to harass the 
divine mind, and to fill it with anger, man is the 
master of God's happiness, and the league he 
has made with Satan is strong enough to dissi- 
pate the projects of the divinity. - In a word, if 
man is free to commit sin, God is no longer om- 
nipotent. 

They reply to us, that God, without compro- 
mising his omnipotence, might give man freedoms 
of action— that this freedom, or liberty, is a be- 
nefit by which God intends to give him the abi- 
lity of meriting his goodness ; but on the other 
hand, this liberty does not yield him sufficient 
• ability to merit his hatred, by offending and en/- 



II 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 67 

couraging others to commit crimes : from 
whence I conclude, that this Kberty is not only a 
benefit, but consistent with the divine goodness. 
This goodness would be more real, if men had 
always sufficient resolution to do what is pleas- 
ing to God, conformably to order, and conducive 
to the happiness of their fellow-creatures. If 
men, in virtue of their liberty, do things contrary 
to the will of God, God who is supposed to have 
the prescience of foreseeing all, ought to have 
taken measures to prevent men from abusing 
their liberty ; if he foresaw they would sin, he 
ought to have given them the means of avoiding 
it; if he could not prevent them from doing ill, 

• he has consented to the ill they have done ; if 
he has consented, he should not be offended ; if 
he is offended, or if he punish them for the evil 
they have done with his permission, he is unjust 
and cruel ; if he suffer them to rush on to their 
destruction, he is bound afterwards to take them 
to himself, and he cannot with reason find fault 
with them for the abuse of their liberty, in being 
deceived or seduced, by the objects which he 

' himself had placed in their way to seduce them, 
to tempt them, and to determine their wills to do 
evil. 

I What would you say of a father who should 
give to his children, in the infancy of age, and 
when they were without experience, the liberty 
of satisfying their disordered appetites, till they 
should convince themselves of their evil tenden- 
cy ^ I Would not such a parent be in the right, 
to feel uneasy at the abuse which they should 
make of their liberty which he had given them? 
11 



68 LETTERS TO EUGENIA^ 

^ Would it not be accounted malice in this pa- 
rent, who should have foreseen what was to 
happen, not to have furnished his children with 
the capacity of directing their own conduct, so 
as to avoid the evils they might be assailed with? 
I Would it not show in him the height of mad- 
ness, were he to punish them for the evil which 
he had done, and the chagrin which they occa- 
sioned him; would it not be to- himself that we 
should ascribe the sottishness and wickedness 
of his children? 

You see, then, the points of view under which 
this system of men's free-will shows us the Deity. 
This free-will becomes a present the most dan- 
gerous, since it puts man in the condition of 
doing evil that is truly frightful. We may thence 
conclude, that this system, far from justifying 
God, makes him capable of malice, imprudence 
and injustice. But this is to overturn all our 
ideas of a being perfectly, nay, infinitely wise 
and good, consenting to punish his creatures for 
sins which he gave them the power of commit- 
ting, or, which is the same, suffering the Devil 
to inspire them with evil. All the subtilties of 
theology tend really to destroy the notions which 
are given us from the book of nature, of its Au- 
thor. This theology is evidently the mythology 
of the heathens. • However, our doctors have 
fancied they have found means to support their 
ruinous suppositions. You have more than 
once heard oipredestination and grace — \ terrible 
words ! which create among us disputes, at 
which reason would be compelled to blush, if 
. the Christians had not come to the resolution to 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 69 

renounce their intellects, and which have not 
less fatal consequences to society. But do not 
you be surprised ;^ these false and obscure prin- 
ciples have even among the theologians pro- 
duced dissensions : and their quarrels would be 
indifferent, if they did not attach more impor- 
tance to them than they really deserve. 

But to proceed. The system of predestina- 
tion supposes, that God, in his eternal secrets^ 
has resolved that some men should be elected, 
and, being thus his favourites, receive special 
grace. By this grace they are supposed to be 
made agreeable to God, and meet for eternal 
happiness. But then an infinitenumber of others 
are destined to perdition, and receive not the 
grace necessary to eternal salvation. These 
contradictory and opposite propositions make it 
pretty evident that the system is absurd. It 
makes God, a being infinitely perfect and good, 
a partial tyrant, who has created a vast number 
of human beings to be the sport of his caprice, 
and the victims of his vengeance. It supposes 
that God will punish his creatures for not having 
received that grace which he did not deign to 
give them ; it presents this God to us under 
traits so revolting, that ' the ' theologians are 
forced to avow that the whole is a profound 
mystery, into which the human mind cannot pe- 
netrate. I But if man is not made to lift his in- 
quisitive eye on this frightful mystery, that is to 
say, on this astonishing absurdity, which our 
teachers have idly endeavoured to square to 
their views of Deity ; or to reconcile the atro- 
cious injustice of their God with his infinite 



70 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

goodness, i by what right do they wish us to 
adore this mystery which they would compel 
us to believe, and to subscribe to an opinion that 
saps the divine goodness to its very foundation? 
I How do they reason upon a dogma, and quar- 
rel with acrimony, about a system of whix:h 
even themselves can comprehend nothing ? 

The more you examine this religion, the more 
you will have occasion to be convinced, that the 
things which its teachers call mysteries, are 
• clusters of difficulties which embarrass them- 
selves ; that when they cannot steer clear of the di- 
lemma into which their absurdities plunge them, 
their false principles are resorted to ; but these 
leave them where they found them. This 
phrase, mystery, is not suited to our compre- 
hension ; even these grave teachers themselves 
do not understand the things they talk of with- 
out ceasing; they invent erroneous words to 
explain matters more so, and they give the 
name of mysteries to things they understand as 
iittle as we do, 

AH the religions in the world are founded on 
predestination ; all the revelations among man- 
kind^ as you hare been already told, suppose 
this odious dogma which makes Providence an 
unjust master, who shows a blind predeliction 
for some of his children, to the prejudice of 
others. -They make God a tyrant,^who punish- 
es tl^e faults of men whom he has not created 
faultless, and pardons those whom he has allow- 
ed to go astray. This dogma, which has serv- 
ed as the basis of Paganism, is also the grand 
pivot of the Christian religion ; ^he Lord of 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA 71 

which doth not exercise less hatred to his wor- 
shippers, than the divinities of the wickedest 
idolaters. With such notions, i is it not astonish- 
ing that this God should appear to those who 
meditate on his attributes, an object sufficiently 
terrible to agitate the imagination, and to lead 
some to indulge in dangerous follies ? 

The dogma of another hfe serves also to ex-' 
culpate the Diety from these apparent injustices 
or aberrations, with which he might naturally be 
accused. It is pretended, that it has pleased 
him to distinguish his friends on earth, seeing 
he has* amply provided for their future happi- 
ness in an abode prepared for their souls. But 
as I believe I have already hinted, these proofs 
that God makes some good, and leaves others 
wicked, either evince injustice on his part, at 
least temporary, or they contradict his Omnipo- 
tence. I If God can do all things, if he is privy 
to all the thoughts and actions of men, what need 
has he of any proofs ? ^ If he has resolved to 
give them grace necessary to save them, has he 
not assured them they wiil not perish ? ^ If he 
is unjust and cruel, this God is not immutable, 
and belies his character ? at least for a time he 
derogates from the perfections which we should 
expect to find in him. i What would you think 
of a king, who, during a particular time, would 
discover to his favourites traits the most fright- 
ful,' in order that they might incur his disgrace, 
and who should afterwards insist on their be- 
lieving him a very good and amiable man, to 
obtain his favour again? i Would not such a 
prince be pronounced wicked, fanciful, and ty- 



72 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

rannical ? Nevertheless, this supposed prince 
might be pardoned by some, if for his own inter- 
est, and the better to assure himself of the at- 
tachment of his friends, he might give them 
some smiles of his favour. It is not so v^ith 
God, who knows all, who can do all, who has 
nothing to fear from the dispositions of his crea- 
tures. From all these reasonings, we may see 
that the Deity, whom the priests have conjur- 
ed up, plays a greatgame, very ridiculous, very 
unjust, on the supposition that he tries his ser- 
vants, and that he allows them to suffer in this 
world, to prepare them for another. The the- 
ologians have not failed to discover motives in 
this conduct of God, which they can as readily 
justify; but these pretended motives are bor- 
rowed from the Omnipotence of this being, by 
his absolute power over his creatures, to whom 
he is not obliged to render an account of his ac- 
tions; but especially in this theology, which 
professes to justify God, |do we not see it make 
him a despot and tyrant more hateful than any 
of his creatures ? 

I am, &c. 



LETTER V, 



Allow me now, Madam, to proceed with you 
to an examination of the dogma of a future life, 
in which it is supposed, that the Deity, after 
having suffered men to be tempted with the 
trials and difficulties of this life ; in fine, to as- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 7^ 

sure himself whether they are worthy of his love 
or hatred, that he may bestow on them rewards 
or inflict on them the punishment which they 
deserve. This dogma, which is one of the ca- 
pital points of the Christian religion, is founded 
on a great many hypotheses or suppositions, 
which we have already glanced at, and w^hich 
we have shown to be absurd and incompatible 
with the notions which the same religion gives 
us of the Deity. In effect, it supposes us capa- 
ble of offending or pleasing the Author of Na- 
ture, of influencing his humour or exciting his 
passions ;' afflicting, tormenting, resisting, and 
thwarting the plans of Deity. It supposes, 
moreover, the free-will of man, a system which 
we have seen incompatible with the goodness, 
justice, and omnipotence of the Deity. It sup- 
poses, further, that God has occasion of prov- 
ing his creatures, and making them, if I may so 
speak, 'pass a noviciate to know what they are 
worth when he shall square accounts with 
them. It supposes in God, who has created 
men for happiness only, the inability to put, by 
one grand effort, all men in the road, whence 
they may infallibly arrive at permanent, felicity. 
It supposes that man will survive himself, or 
that the same being after death, will continue 
•to think, to feel, and act as he did in this life. 
In a word, it supposes the immortality of the 
soul ; an opinion unknown to the Jewish law- 
giver, who is totally silent on this topic to the 
people to whom God had manifested himself; 
an opinion which even in the time of Jesus 
Christ one sect at Jerusalem admitted, while 



74 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

another sect rejected ; an opinion about which 
the Messiah, who came to instruct them, deign- 
ed to fix the ideas of those who might deceive 
themselves, in this respect ;• an opinion which 
appears to have been engendered in Egypt, or 
in India, anterior to the Jewish rehgion, but 
which was unknovv^n among the Hebrews, till 
they took occa^sion to instruct themselves in the 
Pagan philosophy of the Greeks, and doctrines 
of Plato. 

Whatever might be the origin of this doc- 
trine, it was eagerly adopted by the Christians, 
who judged it very convenient to their system 
of religion, all the parts of which are founded on 
the marvellous, and which made it a crime to 
admit any truths agreeable to reason and com- 
mon sense. Thus, without going back to the 
inventors of this inconceivable dogma, let us 
examine dispassionately what this opinion real- 
ly is ; let us endeavour to penetrate to the prin- 
ciples on wliich it is supported ; let us adopt it, 
if we shall find it an idea conformable to reason ; 
let us reject it, if it shall appear destitute of 
proof, and at variance with common sense, even 
though it had been received as an established 
truth in all antiquity, though it may have been 
adopted by many millions of mankind. 

Those who maintain the opinion of the soul's 
immortality regard it, that is, the soul, as a being 
distinct from the body, as a substance, or es- 
sence, totally different from the corporeal frame, 
and they designate it by the name of spirit. If 
we ask them what a spirit is, they tell us it is 
not matter ; and if w^e ask them what they un- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 75 

derstand by that which is not matter, which is 
the only thing of which we cannot form an idea, 
they tell us it is a spirit. In general, it is easy 
to see that men the most savage, as well as the 
most subtle thinkers, make use of iheword spirit 
to designate all the causes of which they cannot 
form clear notions ; hence the word spirit hath 
been used to designate a being of which none 
can form any idea- 

Notwithstanding, the divines pretend, that 
this unknown being, entirely different from the 
body, of a substance which has nothing con- 
formable with itself, is, nevertheless, capable 
of setting the body in motion ; and this, doubt- 
less, is a mystery very inconceivable. We 
have noticed the aUiance between this spiritual 
substance and the material body, whose func- 
tions it regulates. As the divines have suppos- 
ed that matter could neither think, nor will, nor 
perceive, they have believed that it might con- 
ceive much better those operations attributed to 
a being of which they had ideas less clear than 
they can form of matter. In consequence, they 
have imagined many gratuitous suppositions to 
explain the union of the soul with the body. In 
fine, in the impossibility of overcoming the rr>- 
surmountable barriers which oppose then^ the 
priests have made man twofold, by supposing 
that he contains something distinct from himself; 
they have cut through all difficulties by saying 
that this union is a great mystery which man 
cannot understand ; and they have everlasting 
recourse to the omnipotence of God^ to his su- 
preme . will, to the miracles which he has al- 



76 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

ways wrought ; and those last are never-fail- 
ing, final recources, which the theologians re- 
serve for every case wherein they can find no 
other mode of escaping gracefully from the ar- 
gument of their adversaries. 

You see, then, to what we reduce all the 
jargon of the metaphysicians, all the profound 
reveries which for so many ages have been so 
industriously hawked about in defence of the 
soul of man; an immaterial substance, of which 
no living being can form an idea ; a spirit, that 
is to say a being totally different from any thing 
we know. All the theological verbiage ends 
here, by telling us, in a round of pompous terms, 
fooleries that impose on the ignorant — that we 
do not know what essence the soul is of; but 
we call it a spirit because of its nature, and be- 
cause we feel ourselves agitated by some un- 
known agent ; we cannot comprehend the me- 
chanism of the soul ; yet can we feel ourselves 
moved, as it were, by an effect of the power of 
God, whose essence is far removed from ours, 
and more concealed from us than the human soul 
itself. By the aid of this language, from which 
you cannot possibly learn any thing, j you will 
be as wise, Madam, as all the theologians in 
the world ! 

If you would desire to form ideas the most 
precise of yourself, banish from you the preju- 
dices of a vain theology, which only consists in 
repeating words without attaching any new 
ideas to them, and which are insufficient to dis- 
tinguish the soul from the body, which appear 
only capable of multiplying beings without rea- 



■ 



LETTERS OT EUGENIA. 77 

son, of rendering more incomprehensible, and 
more obscure, notions less distinct than we al- 
ready have of ourselves. These notions should 
be at least the most simple, and the most exact, 
if we consult our nature, experience, and reason. 
' They prove that man knows nothing but by his 
material sensible organs, that he sees only by 
his eyes, that he feels by his touch, that he 
hears by his ears ; and that when either of 
those organs is actually deranged, or has been 
previously wanting or imperfect, man can have 
none of the ideas that organ is capable of fur- 
nishing him with, neither thoughts, memory, re- 
flection, judgment, desire, or will. Experience 
shows us, that corporeal and material beings, 
are alone capable of being moved and acted 
upon ; and that without those organs we have 
enumerated, the soul thinks not, feels not, wills 
not, nor is moved. - Every thing shows us that 
the soul undergoes always the same vicissi- 
tudes as the body ;' it grows to maturity, gains 
strength, becomes weak, and puts on old age 
like the body ; in fine, every thing v/e can un- 
derstand of it, goes to prove that it perishes 
with the body ; at least, we want proofs to con- 
vince us, how that, v/hich sees, feels, tastes, 
smells, and hears, by means of the organs of 
sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing, shall exist 
when the organs that communicate these sen- 
sations to it are levelled with the dust. In short, 
the soul seems to exist only through the bodily 
organs ; destroy them ; kill the body ; the soul 
will be incapable of feeling, of sensibihty. 
Every thing we hear about the soul, con- 



78 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

• 

spires to prove it is the same with our body, 
connected relatively to some one or other of 
its faculties, less visible to our understanding, 
than it may be to beings of a superior nature. 
Every thing serves to convince us, that w^ith- 
out the body the soul is nothing, and that all 
the operations which are attributed to the soul 
cannot be exercised any longer when the body 
is destroyed. Our body is a machine, which 
so long as we live, is susceptible of producing 
the effects which have been designated under 
different names, one from another ; sentiment 
is one of these effects, thought is another, re- 
flection a third. This last passes sometimes 
by other names, and our brain appears to be 
the seat of all our organs : it is that which is 
the most susceptible. This organic machine, 
once destroyed or deranged, is no longer capa^ 
ble of producing the same effects, or of exer- 
cising the same functions. It is with our body 
as it is with a watch which indicates the hours, 
and which goes not if the spring or a pinion be 
broken. 

Cease, Eugenia, cease to torment yourself 
about the fate which shall attend you when 
death will have separated you from all that is 
dear on earth. After the dissolution of this life, 
the soul shall cease to exist ; those devouring 
flames with which you have been threatened 
by the priests, will have no effect upon the soul, 
which can neither be susceptible then of plea- 
sures or pains, of agreeable or sorrowful ideas, 
of lively or doleful reflections. 

It is only by means of the bodily organs that 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 79 

we feel, think, and are merry or sad, happy or 
miserable ; this body once reduced to dust, we 
will neither have perceptions nor sensations, 
and, by consequence, neither memory nor ideas ; 
the dispersed particles will no longer have the 
same qualities they possessed when united ; nor 
will they any longer conspire to produce the 
same effects. In a word, the body being de- 
stroyed, the soul, which is merely a result of all 
the parts of the body in action, will cease to be 
what it is ; it will be reduced to nothing with 
the life's breath. 

• Our teachers pretend to understand the soul 
well) they profess to be able to distinguish it 
from the body; in short, they can do nothing 
without it ; and therefore to keep up the farce, 
they have been compelled to admit the ridicu- 
lous dogma of the Persians, known by the name 
of the resurrection. This system supposes, that 
the particles of the body which have been scat- 
tered at death, will be collected at the last day 
to be replaced in their primitive condition. But 
that this strange phenomenon may take place, 
it is necessary that the particles of our destroy- 
ed bodies, of which some have been converted 
into earth, others have passed into plants, others 
into animals, some of one species, others of an- 
other, even of our own ; it is requisite, I say, 
that these particles, of which some have been 
mixed with the waters of the deep, others have 
been carried on the wings of the wind ; it is re- 
quisite that these particles, some of which have 
belonged at one time to one person, at another 
to another ; particles which have nourished the 
12 



80 LETTERS TO EUGEKIA. 

grass of a church-yard, on which a sheep^ or an 
ox, or a goose has fed, and on which sheep, or 
ox, or goose, the pampered priest has afterwards 
fed, till he again became food for his successor, 
and so on ; it is necessary that these particles, 
so evanescent in name^ so common to so many 
different individuals, of so many different spe- 
cies of animals, or even of vegetables, should be 
re-united to reproduce the individual to whom 
they formerly belongedi If you cannot get over 
this impossibility, the theologians w^ill explain it 
to you by saying, very briefly, '.' j Ah ! it is a pro- 
found mystery, which w^e cannot comprehend." 
They will inform you, that the resurrection is 
a miracle, a supernatural effect, w^hich is to re- 
sult from the divine power. It is thus they over- 
come all the difficulties which the good sense of 
a few opposes to their rhapsodies. 

If, perchance, Madam, you do not wish to 
remain content wath these sublime reasons, 
against which your good sense will naturally 
revolt, the parsons, who have left no stone un- 
turned that they might seduce the imagination 
of mankind by vague pictures of the ineffable 
pleasures to be enjoyed in Paradise by the bo- 
dies and souls of those who have been predes- 
tinated, will warn you against refusing to credit 
on their word, without examination, what they 
proclaim, as if they had journeyed into the other 
world, and returned fraught with its secrets ; 
j nay, they will* bid you, at your peril, refuse to 
disbelieve the jargon of nonsense which they 
thunder forth, and which they say, if you do not 
believe, God will heap on you liis eternal indig- 



L JITTERS TO EUGENIA. 81 

nation J Thus they alarm your imagination by 
horrifying pictures of the eternal cruelties of 
God, and torments of man ; as if a beneficent 
Being had prepared a host of creatures to suffer 
so much and so long for his mirth or madness. 

But if you consider the thing coolly, you will 
perceive the futility of their flattering promises, 
and of their puny threatenings, which are utter- 
ed merely to catch the unwary. You may easily 
discover, that if it could be true, that man shall 
survive himself,God, in recompensing him, would 
.only recompense himself for the grace which he 
had granted ; and when he punished him, he 
punished him for not receiving the grace which 
he had hardened him against receiving. This 
line of conduct, so cruel and barbarous, appears 
equally unworthy of a wise God as it is of a 
being perfectly good. 

If your mind, proof against the lerrours with 
which the Christian religion penetrates its secta- 
ries, is capable of contemplating these frightful 
circumstances, which it is imagined will accorO' 
pany the punishments which God has destined 
for the victims of his vengeance, you will find 
that they are impossible and totally incompati- 
ble with all the ideas which we can form of the 
Divinity. In a word, you will perceive, that 
the chastisements of another life are but a crowd 
of chimeras, invented to disturb human reason, 
to subjugate it beneath the feet of imposture, to 
annihilate for ever the repose of slaves, whom 
the priesthood would enthral and retain under 
its yoke. 

In short, Eugenia, the priests would make you 



82 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

believe that these torments will be horrible, a 
thing which accords not with our ideas of God's 
goodness ; they tell you they will be eternal, a 
thing which accords not with our ideas of the jus- 
tice of God, who, one would very naturally sup- 
pose, will proportion chastisements to faults, and 
who, by consequence, will not punish without 
end, the beings whose actions are bounded by 
time. They tell us, that the offences against 
God are infinite, and, by consequence, that the 
Divinity, without doing violence to his justice, 
may avenge himself as God, that is to say, avenge 
himself to infinity. In this case, I shall say, that 
this God is not good ; that he is vindictive, a 
character which always announces fear and 
weakness. In fine, I shall say, that among the 
imperfect beings who compose the human spe- 
cies, there is not, perhaps, a single one who, 
without some advantage to himself, without per^ 
sonal fear, in a word, without folly, would con^ 
sent to punish everlastingly the wretch who 
might have the misfortune to offend him, but 
who no longer had either the ability or the in^ 
clination to commit another offence. Caligula 
found, at least, some little amusement to forsake 
for a time the cnres of government, and enjoy 
the spectacle of punishment which he inflicted 
on those unfortunate men whom he had an in- 
terest in destroying, i But what advantage can 
it be to God to heap on the damned everlasting 
torments ? [Will this amuse him ? i Will their 
frightful punishments correct their faults ? i Can 
these examples of the divine severity be of any 
service to those on earth, who witness not their 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 83 

friends in hell ? i Will it not be the most aston- 
ishing of all the miracles ef Deity, to make the 
bodies of the damned invulnerable-^to resist, 
through the ceaseless ages of eternity, the fright- 
ful torments destined for them? 

• You see then, Madam, that the ideas which 
the priests give us of hell, make of God a being 
infinitely more insensible, more wicked and cruel 
than the most barbarous of men. They add to 
3^11 this, that it will be the Devil and the apostate 
angels, that is to say, the enemies of God, whom 
he will employ as the ministers of his implaca- 
ble vengeance. These wicked spirits, then, will 
/execute the commqinds which this severe judge 
will pronounce against men at the last judgment. 
For you must know, Madam, that a God, who 
knows all, will at some future time take an ac- 
count of what he already knows. So then, not 
content with judging men at death, he will as- 
semble the whole human race with great pomp 
at the last or general judgment, in which he will 
confirm his sentence in the view of the whole 
human race, assembled to receive their doom. 
Thus, on the wreck of the world, will he pro- 
nounce a definitive judgment, from which there 
will be no appeal. 

But, in attending this memorable judgment, 
^what will become of the souls of men, sieparat- 
ed from their bodies, which have not yet been 
resuscitated ? The souls of the just will go di- 
rectly to enjoy the blessings of Paradise ; i but 
what is to become of the immense crowd of 
souls imbued with faults or crimes, and on whom 
the infalHble parsons, who are so well instructed 
12* 



84 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

in what is passing in another world, cannot speak 

with certainty as to their fate ? According to 
some of these w^iseacres, God will place the souls 
of such as are not wholly displeasing to him, in 
a place of punishment, where by rigorous tor- 
ments they shall have the merit of expiating the 
faults with which they may stand chargeable at 
death. According to this fine system, so pro- 
fitable to our spiritual guides, God has found it 
the most simple method to build a fiery furnace 
for the special purpose of tormenting a certain 
proportion of souls who have not been sufficient- 
ly purified at death to enter Paradise, but who, 
after leaving them some years united with the 
body, and giving them time necessary to arrive 
at that amendment of life, by which they may 
become partakers of the supreme felicity of hea- 
ven, ordains that they shall expiate their offences 
in torment. It is on this ridiculous notion that 
our priests have bottomed the doctrine of pur^ ■ 
gatory, which every good Catholic is obliged to 
believe for the benefit of the priests, who reserve 
to themselves, as is very reasonable, the power 
of compelung by their prayers a just and immu- 
table God to relax in his sternness, and liberate 
the captive souls, which he had only condemned 
to undergo this purgation, in order that they 
might be made meet for the joys of Paradise. 

With respect to the Protestants who are, as 
every one knows, heretics and impious, you will 
observe that they pretend not to those lucrative 
. view^s of the Roman doctors, j On the contrary, 
they think that, at the instant of death, every 
man is irrevocably judged ; that he goes directly 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 85 

to glory, or into a place of punishment, to suffer 
the award of evil by the enduring of punish- 
ments for which God had eternally prepared 
both the sufferer and his torments ! j Even be- 
fore the re-union of soul and body, at the final 
judgment, they fancy that the soul of the wick- 
ed, (which on the principle of all souls being 
spirits must be the same in essencQ as the soul 
of the elect,) will, though deprived of those 
organs by which it felt and thought and acted, 
be capable , of undergoing the agency or action 
of a fire ! It is true that some'lVotestant theo- 
logians tell us, that the fire of hell is a spiritual 
fire, and by consequence very different from the 
material fire vomited out of Vesuvius, and iEtna, 
and Hecla. Nor ought we to doubt that these 
informed doctors of the Protestant faith know 
very well what they say, and that they have as 
precise and clear ideas of a spiritual fire as they 
have of the ineffable joys of paradise, which 
' may be as spiritual as the punishment of the 
damned in hell. 

Such are, Madam, in a few words, the absurd- 
ities, not less revolting than ridiculous, w^hich 
the dogmas of a future life and of the immortal- 
ity of the soul have engendered in the minds of 
men. Such are the phantoms which have been 
invented and propagated, to seduce and alarm 
mortals, to excite their hopes and their fears; 
such the illusions that so powerfully operate on 
weak and feeling beings. But lest these gloomy 
ideas should have too much influence in depres- 
sing the imagination, and banishing from it the 
agreeable thoughts which the variegated scenes 



86 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

of life so naturally and so frequently furnish us 
"vyith/ the priests have always ingisted more for- 
cibly on what men have to fear on the part of a 
terrible God, than on what they have to hope 
from the rnercy of a forgiving Deity, full of 
goodness. Princes the most wicked are infinitely 
more respected than those who are famed for 
indulgence and humanity, - The priests have 
had the art to throw us into uncertainty e^nd 
mistrust by the two-fold character which they 
have given the divinity. -' If they promise us 
salvation, they tell us that we must work it out 
for ourselves, " with fear and trembling." It is 
thus that they have contrived to inspire the 
minds of the most honest men with dismay and 
doubt, repeating without ceasing, that time only 
must disclose who are worthy of the divine love, 
or who are to be the objects of the divine wrath. 
'Terrour has been, and always w^ill be the most 
certain means of corrupting and enslaving the 
mind of man. 

They will tell us, doubtless, that the terrours 
which religion inspires, are salutary terroqrs : 
that the dogma of another life is a bridle suffi- 
ciently powerful to prevent the commission of 
ci*inies, and restrain men within the path of duty. 
To undeceive one's self of this maxim, so often 
thundered in our ears, and so generally adopted 
on the authority of the priests, we have only to 
open our eyes. Nevertheless, we see some 
Christians thoroughly persuaded of another life, 
who, notwithstanding, conduct themselves as if 
they had nothing to fear on the part of a God of 
vengeance, nor any thing to hope from a God of 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 87 

mercy. When any of these are engaged in 
some great project, at all times they are tempt- 
ed by some strong passion, or by some bad habit, 
they shut their eyes on another Hfe, they see not 
the enraged judge, they suffer themselves to sin, 
and when it is committed, they comfort them- 
selves by saying, that God is good. Besides, 
they console themselves by the same contra- 
dictory religion which shows them also this 
same God, whom it represents so susceptible of 
wrath, as full of mercy, bestowing his grace on 
all those who are sensible of their evils and re- 
pent. ' In a word, I see none whom the fears of 
hell will restrain, when passion or interest solicit 
obedience. -The very priests, who make so 
many efforts to convince us of their dogmas, too 
often evince more wickedness of conduct than 
we find in those w^ho have never heard one 
word about another life. • Those who from in- 
fancy have been taught these terrifying lessons, 
are neither less debauched, nor less proud, nor 
less passionate, nor less unjust, nor less avari- 
cious than others, who have lived and died 
ignorant of Christian purgatory and paradise. 
In fine^ the dogma of another life has little or no 
influence on them ; it annihilates none of their 
passions; it is a bridle merely with some few 
timid souls, w^ho, without its knowledge, would 
never have the hardihood to be guilty of any 
great excesses. This dogma is very fit to dis- 
turb the quiet of some honest, timorous persons, 
and the credulous, whose imagination it in- 
flames, without ever staying the hand of great 
rogues, without imposing on them more than 



88 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the decency of civilization, and a specious mo- 
rality of life, restrained chiefly by the coercion 
of public laws. 

In short, to sum all up in one thought, I be- 
hold a religion gloomy and formidable to make 
impressions very Hvely, very deep, and very 
dangerous on a mind such as yours, although it 
makes but very momentary impressions on the 
minds of such as are hardened in crime, or 
whose dissipation destroys constantly the effects 
of its threats. More hvely affected than others 
by your principles, you have been but too often 
and too seriously occupied for your happiness, 
by gloomy and harassing objects, which have 
powerfully affected your sensible imagination, 
though the same phantoms that have pursued 
you have been altogether banished from the 
mind of those who have had neither your vir- • 
tues, your understanding, nor your sensibility. 

According to his principles, a Christian must 
always Hve in fear ; he can never know with 
certainty whether he pleases or displease^ God ; 
the least movement of pride, or of covetouspess, 
the least desire, will suffice to merit the divine 
anger, and lose in one moment the fruits of years 
of devotion. It is not surprising, that with these 
frightful principles before them, many Christians 
should endeavour to find in solitude, employ- 
ment for their lugubrious reflections, where 
they may avoid the occasions that solicit them 
to do wrong, and embrace such means as are 
most likely, according to their notions of the 
likelyhood of the thing, to expiate the faults 
which they fancy might incur the eternal ven- 
geance of God. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 89 

Thus the dark notions of a future lik, leave 
those only in peace who think notoriously upon 
it; they are very disconsolate to all those 
whose temperament determines them to con- 
template it. They are but the atrocious ideas, 
however, which the priests study to give us of 
the Deity, and by which they have compelled 
so many worthy people to throw themselves 
into the arms of incredulity. If some libertines, 
incapable of reasoning, abjure a religion trouble- 
some to their passions, or which abridges their 
pleasures, there are very many who have ma- 
turely examined it, that have been disgusted 
with it, because they could not consent to live 
in the fears it engendered, nor to nourish the 
despair it created. They have then abjured 
this religion, fit only to fill the soul with inquie- 
tudes, that they might find in the bosom of rea- 
son the repose which it ensures to good sense. 

• Times of the greatest crimes are always times 
of the greatest ignorance. • It is in these times, 
or usually so, that the greatest noise is made 
about religion. • Men then follow mechanically, 
and without examination, the tenets which their 
priests impose on thfem, without ever diving to 
the bottom of their doctrines. In proportion as 
mankind become enlightened, great crimes be- 
come more rare, the manners of men are more 
polished, the sciences are cultivated, and the 
religion which they have coolly and carefully 
examined, loses sensibly its credit. It is thus 
that we now see so many incredulous people 
in the bosom of society become more agreeable 
and complacent now than formerly, when they 



90 LEtTERS TO EUGENIA. 

were governed by the caprice of a priest who 
crammed them with difficulties, which himself 
for a small sum could go through with God^ 
and thus secure for the credulous the hope of 
Heaven. The deeper the purse of the votary, 
the surer was Heaven to him at death; the 
more the priests felt of the gold, the more appa- ' 
rent was Paradise to the giver of the "filthy 
lucre." 

Religion is consoling only to those who have 
no embarrassement about it; the indefinite and 
vague recompence which it promises, without 
giving ideas of it, is made to deceive those who 
make no reflections on the impatient, variable, 
false, and cruel character which this religion 
gives of its God. i But how can it make any 
promises on the part of a God whom it repre- 
sents as a tempter, a seducer, who appears, 
moreover, to take pleasure in laying the most 
dangerous snares for his^ weak creatures ? 
I How can it reckon on the favours of a God 
full of caprice, whom it alternately informs us 
is replete with tenderness or with hatred? ^By 
what right does it hold out tq us the rewards of 
a despotic and tyrannical God, who does or 
does not choose men for happiness, and who 
consults only his own fantasy to destine some 
of his creatures to bliss and others to perdition? 
Nothing, doubtless, but the blindest enthusiasm 
could induce mortals to place confidence in 
such a God as the priests have feigned ; it is 
to folly alone we must attribute the love some 
well-meaning people profess to the God of the 
parsons; it is matchless extravagance alone 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 91 

that could prevail on rrien to reckon on the un- 
known rewards which are promised them by 
this religion, at the same time that it assures us, 
that God is the author of grace, but that we 
hav^e no right to expect any thing from him. 

lii €1 Word, Madam, the notions of another 
lifei far from consoling, are fit only to embitter 
ail the sweets of the present life. After the sad 
and gloomy ideas which Christianity, always at 
variance with itself, presents us with of its God, 
it then affirms, that we are much more likely to 
incur his terrible chastisements, than possessed 
of power by which we may merit ineffable re- 
wards ; and it proceeds to inform us, that God 
will give grace to whomsoever he pleascSj yet 
it remains with themselves w^hether they escape 
damnation t and a life the most spotless cannot 
warrant them to presutne that they are worthy 
of his favour. In good truth, i would not total 
annihilation be pteferrable to such beings rather 
than falling into the hands of a Deity so hard- 
hearted ? I Would not every man of sense pre- 
fer the idea of cotnplete annihilation to that of a 
future existence, in order to be the sport of 
the eternal caprice of a Deity, so cruel as to 
damn and torment, without end, the unfortu- 
nate beings whom he created so weak, that 
he might punish them for faults inseperable 
from their nature ? [If God is good, as w^e 
are assured, notwithstanding the cruehies ©f 
which the priests suppose him capable, is it 
not more consonant to all our ideas of a being 
perfectly good, to believe that he did not create 
them to sport with them in a state of eternal 
13 



92 LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 

damnation, which they had not the power of 
choosing, or of rejecting and shunning ? | Has 
not the God whom the theologians have conjur- 
ed up, treated the beasts of the field more fa- 
vourably than he has treated man, since he has 
exempted them from sin, and by consequence 
has not exposed them to suffer an eternal unhap- 
piness ? 

The dogma of the immortahty of the soul, or 
of a future life, presents nothing consoling in 
the Christian religion. On the contrary it w^as 
calculated expressly to fill the heart of the 
Christian, following out his principles, with bit- 
terness and continual alarm. 1 appeal to yourself, 
Madam, pvhether these sublime notions have 
any thing consoling in them ? Whenever this 
uncertain idea has presented itself to your mind, 
I has it not filled you with a cold and secret 
horrour ? 

The consciousness of a life so virtuous and so 
spotless, should doubtless be capable of securing 
you againfs those fears which the priests throw 
around your sex. Doubtless it does so, else ^are 
you not inspired with the idea of a being jealous, 
severe, capricious, whose eternal disgrace the 
highest fault is sure of incurring, and in whose 
eyes the smallest weakness, or freedom the most 
involuntary, is sufficient to cancel years of strict 
observance of all the rules of propriety and re- 
ligion ? 

I know very well what you will advance to 
support yourself in your prejudices. The mi- 
nisters of religion possess the secret of temper- 
ing the alarms which they have the art to excite. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 93 

They strive to inspire confidence in those minds 
which they discover accessible to fear. They 
balance, thus, one passion against another.-— 
They hold in suspense the minds of their slaves, 
in the apprehension that too much confidence 
would only render them less pliable, or that des- 
pair would force them to throw off the yoke. 
To persons terribly frightened about their state 
after death, they speak only of the hopes which 
we may entertain of the goodness of God. To 
those who have too much confidence, they 
preach up the terrrous of the Lord, and the judg- 
ments of a severe God. By this chicanery they 
contrive, like wily politicians, to keep under 
their yoke the pliable and the obstinate ; all those 
who are weak enough to be led by the contra- 
dictory doctrines of these blind guides. 

They tell you, besides, that the sentiment of 
the immortality of the soul is inherent in man; 
that the soul is consumed by boundless desires, 
and that since there is nothing on this earth ca- 
pable of satisfying it, these are indubitable 
proofs that it is destined to subsist eternally. 
In a word, that as we naturally desire to exist 
always, we may naturally conclude that we shall 
always exist. But ^what think you Madam, of 
guch reasonings ? i To what do they lead ? 
I Do we desire the continuation of this existence, 
because it may be blessed and happy, or because 
we know not what may become of us ? But 
we cannot desire a miserable existence, or, at 
least, one in which it is more than probable wo 
may be miserable rather than happy. If, as the 
Christian religion so often repeats, the number 



94 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

of the elect is very small, and salvation very 
difficult, the number of the reprobate very great, 
and damnation very easily obtained, ^ who is 
he w^ho would desire to exist always with so 
evident a risk of being eternally damned] — 
I Would it not have been better for us not to 
have been born, than to have been compelled 
against our nature to play a game so fraught 
with peril ? i Does not annihilation itself pre- 
sent to us an idea preferable to that of an exist- 
ence which may very easily lead us to eternal 
tortures ? Suffer me, Madam, to appeal to your- 
self. I If before you had come into this world, 
you had had your choice of being born, or 
of not seeing the light of this fair sun, you 
could have been made to comprehend, but for 
one moment, the hundred thousandth part of 
the risks you run to be eternally unhappy, 
would you not have determined never to enjoy 
lif^? 

It is an easy matter, then, to perceive the 
proofs on w^hich the priests pretend to found 
this dogma of the immortality of the soul and a 
future life. The desire which we might have of 
it could only be founded on the hope of enjoying 
eternal happiness. But ^ does religion give us 
this assurance ? Yes, say the clergy, if you 
submit faithfully to the rules it prescribes. But 
to conform one's self to these rules, ^is it not 
necessary to have grace from Heaven! And, 
^are we then sure we shall obtain that grace, 
or if we do, merit Heaven ? i Do the priests 
not repeat to us, without ceasing, that God is the 
author of grace, and that he only gives it to a 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 95 

small number of the elect ? ^ Do they not daily- 
tell us that, except one man, who rendered him- 
self worthy of this eternal happiness, there are 
I millions going the high road to damnation ? It 
is plain, that every Christian who would so rea- 
son, would be a fool, to desire a future existence 
which he has so many motives to fear, or to 
reckon on a happiness which every thing con- 
spires to show him is as uncertain, as difficult to 
be obtained, as it is unequivocally dependent oa 
Che fantasies of a capricious Deity, who sports 
with the misfortunes of his creatures. 

Under every point of view in which we re- 
gard the dogma of the soul's immortality, we are 
compelled to corsider it as a chimera invented 
by' men who have realized their wishes, or who 
have not been able to justify Providence from 
the transitory injustices of this world. This dog- 
ma was received with avidity, because it flat- 
tered the desires, and especially the vanity of 
man, who arrogated to himself a superiority 
above all the beings that enjoy existence, and 
which he would pass by and reduce to mere 
clay; who believed himself the favourite of God, 
without ever taxing? his attention with this other 
fact, that God makes him every instant expe- 
. rience vicissitudes, calamities, and trials, as all 
sentient natures experience ; that God made him, 
in fine to undergo death, or dissolution, which 
is an invariable law that all that exists must find 
verified. This haughty creature, who fancies 
himself a privileged being, alone agreeable to 
his Maker, does not perceive that there are 
stages in his hfe when his existence is more un- 
13* 



96 LETTERS TO EtGENIA. 

certain and much more weak than that of the 
other animals, or even of some inanimate things. 
Man is unwilling to admit, that he possesses not 
the strength of the lion, nor the swiftness of the 
stag, nor the durability of an oak, nor t\^ solid- 
ity of marble, or metal. He believes himself 
the greatest favourite, the most sublime, the 
most noble ; he believes himself superior to all 
other animals, because he possesses the facul- 
ties of thinking, judging and reasoning. But his 
thoughts only render him more wretched than 
all the animals whom he supposes deprived of 
this faculty, or who, at least, he believes, do not 
enjoy it in the same degree with himself, i Do 
not the faculties of thinking, of remembering, 
of foresight, too often render him unhappy by 
the very idea of the past, the present, and the fu- 
ture ? [ Do not his passions drive him to excesses 
unknown to the other animals ? i Are his judg- 
ments always reasonable and wise ? ^ Is rea- 
son too well developed in many men that the 
priests interdict its use as dangerous ? i Are 
mankind sufficiently advanced in knowledge to 
be able to overcome the prejudices and chimeras 
which render them unhappy during the greatest 
part of their lives? In fine, ^have the beasts 
some species of religious impressions, which in- 
spire continual terrours in tneir breast, making 
them look upon some awful event, which em- 
bitters their softest pleasures, which enjoins them 
to tormeut themselves, and which threaten them 
with eternal damnation ? j No ! 

In truth. Madam, if you weigh in an equitable 
balance the pretended advantages of man above 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 97 

the other animals, you will soon see how evan- 
escent is this fictitious superiority which he has 
arrogated to himself. -We find that all the pro- 
ductions of nature are submitted to the same 
laws ; that all beings are only born to die ; they 
produce their like to destroy themselves ; that 
all sentient beings are compelled to undergo 
pleasures and pains ; they appear and they dis- 
appear ; they are and they cease to be ; they 
evince under one form that they will quit it 
to produce another. Such are the continual 
vicissitudes to which every thing that exists is 
.evidently subjected, and from which man is 
not exempt, any more than the other beings 
and productions that he appropriates to his 
use as lord of the creation. Even our globe it- 
self undergoes change ; the seas change their 
place ; the mountains are gathered in heaps or 
levelled into plains ; every thing that breathes 
i^ destroyed at last, and man alone pretends to 
an eternal duration. 

It is unnecessary to tell mp, that we degrade 
man when we compare him w^ith the beasts, de- 
prived of souls and intelligence ; this is no level- 
ling doctrine, but one which places him exactly 
where nature places him, but from which his 
vanity has unfortunately driven him. All beings 
are equals ; under various and different forms 
they act differently ; they are governed in their 
appetites and passions by laws which are inva- 
riably the same for all of the same species; 
every thing which is composed of parts will be 
dissolved ; every thing which has life, must part 
with it at death ; all men are equally compelled 



98 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

to submit to this fate, they are equal at death, 
although during Kfe their power, their talents, 
and especially their virtues estabhsh a marked 
difference, which though real is only moment- 
ary. I What will they be after death? They 
will be exactly what they were ten years before 
they were born. 

Banish then, Eugenia, from your mind for 
ever the terrours which death has hitherto filled 
you with. It is for the wretched a safe haven 
against the misfortunes of this life, i If it appears 
a cruel alternative to those who enjoy the good 
things of this world, why do they not console 
themselves with the idea of what they do actu- 
ally enjoy ? Let them call reason to their aid; 
it will calm the inquietudes of their imagination, 
but too greatly alarmed; it will disperse the 
clouds which religion spreads over their minds ; 
it will teach them, that this death, so terrible in 
apprehension, is really nothing, and that it will 
neither be accompanied with remembrance of 
past pleasures nor of sorrow now no more. 

j Live, then, happy and tranquil, amiable Eu- 
genia ! Preserve carefully an existence so in- 
teresting and so necessary to all those with 
whom you live. Allow not your health to be 
injured, nor trouble your quiet with melancholy 
ideas, j Without being teased by the prospect of 
an event which has no right to disturb your re- 
pose, cultivate virtue, which has always been 
your favourite, so necessary to your internal 
peace, and which has rendered you so dear to all 
those who have the happiness of being your 
friends! Let your rank, your credit, your 



BETTERS TO EUOENU. 99 

riehes, your talents be employed to make others 
happy, to support the oppressed, to succour the 
unfortunate, to dry up the tears of those whom 
you may have an opportunity of comforting ! 
j Let your mind be occupied about such agree- 
able and profitable employments as are likely to 
please y^u I j Call in the aid of your reason to 
dissipate the phantoms which alarm you, to ef- 
face the prejudices which jon have imbibed in 
.early life j j In a word, comfort yourself, and 
remember, that in practising virtue, as you do, 
you cannot become an obje^ct of hatred to God, 
who, if he has reserved ia eternity rigorous 
punishments for the social virtues, will be the 
strangest, the m^ost cruel, and the most insensi- 
ble of beings j 

You demand of me, perhaps, " In destroying 
the id^a of another world, i what is to become of 
the remorse, those chastisements, bo useful to 
mankind, and so well calculated to restrain them 
within the bounds of propriety T I reply, that 
remorse will always subsist as long as we shall 
be capable of feeling its pangs, even when we 
cease to fear the distant and uncertain ven- 
geance of the Divinity. In the commission of 
.crimes in allowing one's self to be the sport of 
passion, in injuring our species, in refusing to do 
them good, in stifling pity, every man, who^e 
reason is not totally deranged, perceives clear- 
ly that he will render himself odious to others, 
that he ought to fear their enmity. He will 
blush, then^ if he thinks he has rendered himself 
hateful and detestable in their eyes. He knows 
the continual need he has of their esteem and as- 



100 LETTERS TO EUGEXIA. 

sistance. Experience proves to him, that vices 
the most concealed are injurious to himself. He 
lives in perpetual fear lest some mishap should 
unfold his weaknesses and secret faults. It is 
from all these ideas that we are to look for re- 
gret and remorse, even in those who do not be- 
lieve in the chimeras of another world. With 
regard to those whose reason is deranged, those 
who are enervated by their passions, or perhaps 
linked to vice by the chains of habit, even with 
the prospect of Hell open before them, they will 
neither live less vicious, nor less wicked. An 
avenging God will never inflict on any man such 
a total want of reason as may make him regard- 
less of public opinion, trample decency under 
foot, brave the laws, and expose himself to deri- 
sion and human chastisements. Every man of 
sense easily understands, that in this world the 
esteem and affection of others are necessary 
for his happiness, and that life is but a burden 
to those who by their vices injure themselves, 
and render themselves reprehensible in the eyes 
of society. 

The true means, Madam, of living happy in 
this world is to do good to your fellow-creatures ; 
labour for the happiness of your species ; this is 
the chief virtue, at least, it is to have virtue, and 
with virtue you will appear agreeable to others, 
and be without remorse yourself to the end of 
life. Remorse is a feeling that should be far 
from your bosom ; the very word conjures up 
fears to the simple ; it is a term which the 
wants and desires of all those who know you 
will strive to keep remote from your mind, that 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 101 

you may always partake of that content and joy 
which every thing around you should create for 
your well-being, and multiply to your advan- 
tage as you glide through life to the bosom of 
nature. 

I am, &c. 



LETTER VL 



The reflections, Madam, which I have alrea- 
dy offered you in these letters ought, I conceive, 
to liave sufficed to undeceive you, in a great 
measure, of the luojubrious and afflictins: notions 
with which you have been inspired by religious 
prejudices. However, to fulfil the task w^hich 
you have imposed on me, and to assist you in 
freeing yourself from the unfavourable ideas 
you may have imbibed from a system replete 
with irrelevancies and contradictions, I shall 
continue to examine the strange mysteries with 
which Christianity is adorned. They are found- 
ed on ideas so odd and so contrary to reason, 
that if from infancy we had not been famihariz- 
ed with them, we should blush at our species 
in having for one instant believed and adopted 
them. 

The Christians, scarcely content with the 
crowd of enigmas with w^hich the books of the 
Jews are filled, have besides fancied they must 
add to them a great many incomprehensible 
mysteries, for which they have the most pro- 



103 LETTERS T6 tlUCJENJA. 

fddnd veneration. Their imp6hetfable obscu- 
rity appears to be a sufficient niotive amoWg 
them fol* adding these* Their priests, encotiN 
aged by their creduHty^ which ftolhing CBu out- 
do, iSeeiti to be studious to multiply the articles 
of their faith, and the number of inconceivable 
objects which they have said must be received 
with submission, and adored even if not un- 
derstood. 

The first of these mysteries is the Trinity^ 
which supposes that one God, self-existent, wha 
is a pure spirit, is, nevertheless, composed of 
threei Divinities, which have obtained the names 
of persons. These three Gods, who are desig- 
nated undef the respective names of the Father, 
the 8on^ and the Holy Ghost, are^ nevertheless, 
but one God only. -These three persons are 
equal in power, in wisdom, in perfections ; yet 
the second is subordinate to the first, in conse- 
quence of which he was compelled to become 
a man, and be the victim of the wrath of his 
Father. • This is what the priests call the mys- 
tery of the incarnation. Notwithstanding his 
inniocetice, his perfection, his purity, the Son of 
God became the object of the Vengeance of a 
just God, who is the same as the Son in ques- 
tion, but who would not consent to appease him- 
self but by the death of his own Son, who is a 
portion of himself. The Son of God, not con- 
tent with becoming man, died without having 
sinned, for the salvation of men who had sin- 
ned. God preferred to the punishment of im- 
perfect beings, whom he did not choose to 
amend, the punishment of his only Son, full of 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 103 

divine perfections. The death of God became 
necessary to reclaim the human kind from the 
slavery of Satan, who without that would not 
have quitted his prey, and who has been found 
sufficiently powerful against the Ommpotent to 
oblige him to sacrifice his Son. This is what 
the priests designate by the name of the mys- 
tery of redemption. 

It is, unquestionably, the briefest way to show 
the absurdity of these notions, to state them fair- 
ly as the priests deliver them to us. It is evi- 
dent, that if there be but one God alone, there 
could not be three. Yet one may very easily 
conceive such a trifold Divinity much in the 
same way as Plato, who has, doubtless, had the 
advantage of the Christian teachers in this re- 
spect, since he fashioned the Deity under three' 
different points of view, namely, all-powerfuf, 
all-wise, reasonable, and, in fine, as full of good- 
ness ; but in the excess of his zeal for these 
perfections, Plato, who personified these three" 
divine qualities, either himself transformed therri 
into three real beings, or, at least, furnished the 
Christians w^ith the means of their composition. 
It is not a difficult task to suppose, that those 
moral attributes may be found in one and the 
same God ; but it is the height of folly, because 
such a supposition can be reasonably entertain- 
ed, to fashion three different Gods ; and in vain 
shall we be able to remedy this metaphysical 
polytheism by arguments to make of one threCy 
and of three one. Besides, this reverie never 
entered the head of the Hebrew Legislator. — 
The Eternal, it is true, revealed himself to Mo- 
14 



104 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

ses, but not as a threefold Deity. There is not 
one syllable in the Old Testament about this 
Trinity, although a notion so bizzare, so marvel- 
lous, and so little consonant with our ideas of a 
divine being, deserved to have been formally 
announced, especially as it is the foundation and 
corner-stone of the Christian religion, w^hich 
was from all eternity an object of the divine 
soHcitude, and on the establishment of which, if 
we may credit our sapient priests, God seems 
to have entertained serious thoughts long before 
the creation of the world. 

Nevertheless, the second person, or the se- 
cond God of the Trinity, is revealed in flesh, 
the son of God is made 'man. i But how could 
the pure Spirit who presides over the universe 
beget a son? ^ How could this son, who before 
his incarnation w^as only a pure spirit, combine 
that etherial essence wath a material body, and 
envelope himself with it? i How could the di- 
vine nature amalgamate itself with the imper- 
fect nature of man, and how could an immense 
and infinite being, as the Deity is represented, 
be formed in the womb of a virgin ? i After 
what manner could a pure spirit fecundate this 
favourite virgin ? i Did the Son of God enjoy 
in the w^omb of his mother, the faculties of om- 
nipotence, or was he like other children during 
his infancy, weak, liable to infirmities, sickness, 
and intellectual imbecility, so conspicuous in the 
years of childhood ; and if so, what, during this 
period, became of the divine wisdom and power? 
In fine, i how could God suffer and die ? i How 
could a just God consent that a God exempt 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 105 

from all sin should endure the chastisements 
which are due to sinners ? i Why did he not 
appease himself without immolating a victim so 
precious and so innocent ? i What would you 
think of that sovereign who, in the event of his 
subjects rebelling against him, should forgive 
them all, or a select number of them, by putting 
to death his only and beloved son, who had not 
rebelled ? 

'The priests tell us, that it was out of tender- 
ness for the human kind that God wished to ac- 
complish this sacrifice. But I still ask, i if it 
would not have been more simple, more con- 
formable to all our ideas of Deity, for God to 
pardon the iniquities of the human race, or to 
have prevented them committing transgressions, 
- by placing them in a condition in which, by their 
own will, they should never have sinned? Ac- 
cording to the entire system of the Christian 
religion, it is evident, that God did only create 
the world to have an opportunity of immolating 
his Son for the rebellious beings he might have 
formed and preserved immaculate. The fall of 
the rebellious angels had no visible end to serve 
but to effect and hasten the fall of Adam. It 
appears from this system, that God permitted 
the first man to sin that he might have the plea- 
sure of showing his goodness in sacrificing his 
" only begotten son" to reclaim men from the 
thraldom of Satan. He entrusted to Satan as 
much power as might enable him to work the 
ruin of our race, with the view of afterwards 
changing the projects of the great mass of man- 
kind, by making one Gk)d to die, and thereby, 



106 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

destroy the power of the devil on the earth.-^ 
Now the Son of God died, according to the 
priests, but the power of Satan, we affirm, 
remains as great as ever — i How can these 
}hing5 be ? — 

I Has God succeeded in these projects to the 
end he proposed ? i Are men entirely rescued 
froxn. the dominion of Satan ? i Are they not 
still the slaves of sin ? i Do they find them- 
selves in the happy impossibility of kindhng the 
divine wrath ? i Has the blood of the Son of 
God washed away the sins of the whole world ? 
I Do those who are reclaimed, those to whom 
he has made himself known, those who believe, 
offend not against heaven ? i Has the Deity, 
who ought without doubt, to be perfectly satis- 
iied with so memorable a sacrifice, remitted to 
them the punishment of sin ? ^ Is it not neces- 
sary to do something more for them ? And since 
the death of his son, i do we find the Christians 
exempt from disease and from death ? Nothing 
of all this has happened. The measures taken 
from all eternity by the wisdom and prescience 
of a God who sliould find against his plans no 
obstacles, have been overthrown. The death 
of God himself has been of no utility to the 
world. All the divine projects have militated 
against the free-will of man, but they have not 
destroyed the power of Satan. Man continues to 
sin and to die ; the devil keeps possession of the 
field of battle : and it is for a very small num- 
ber of the elect that the Deity consented to die. 

You do indeed smile. Madam, at my being 
obliged seriously to combat such chimeras. If 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 107 

they have something of the marvellous in them 
it is quite adapted to the heads of children, not 
of men, and ought not to be admitted by rea- 
sonable beings. All the notions we can form of 
those things must be mysterious ; yet there is 
no subject more demonstrable according to those 
whose interest it is to have it believed, though 
they are as incapable as ourselves to compre- 
hend the matter. For the priests to say that they 
believe such absurdities, is to be guilty of mani- 
fest falsehood ; because a proposition to be be- 
lieved must necessarily be understood. To be- 
lieve what they do not comprehend, is to adhere 
sottishly to the absurdities of others ; to believe 
things which are not comprehended by those 
who gossip about them, is the height of folly ; 
to believe blindly the mysteries of the Christian 
religion, is to admit contradictions of which they 
who declare them are not convinced. In fine, 
is it necessary to abandon one's reason among 
absurdities, that have been received without ex- 
amination from ancient priests, who w^ere either 
the dupejs of more knowing men, or themselves 
the impostors who fabricated the tales in ques- 
tion. 

If you ask of me, how men have not long 
ago been shocked by such absurd and unintel- 
ligible reveries ; I shall proceed, in my turn, to 
explain to you this secret of the church, this 
mystery of our priests. It is not necessary, in 
doing this, to pay any attention to those general 
dispositions of man, especially when he is ignor- 
ant and incapable of reasoning. All men are 
curious, inquisitive ; their curiosity spurs them 
14^ 



108 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

on to inquiry, and their imagination busies itself 
to cjothe with mystery, every thing the fancy 
conjures up as important to happiness. The 
vulgar mistake even what they have the means 
of knowing, or, which is the same thing, what 
Stlicy are least practised in, they are dazzled 
with ; they proclaim it, accordingly, marvel- 
Jous, prodigious, extraordinary ; it is a pheno- 
jnenon. They neither admire, nor respect much 
what is always visible to their eyes ; but what- 
ever strikes their imagination, whatever gives 
scope to the mind becomes itself the fruitful 
source of other ideas far more extravagant. — 
The priests have had the art to prevail on the 
people to believe in their secret correspondence 
with the Deity ; they have been thence much 
respected, and in all countries their professed 
intercourse with an unseen Divinity, has given 
room for their announcement of things the most 
marvelloufe- and mysterious. 

Besides^ the Divinity being a being whose 
impenetrable essence is veiled from mortal sight, 
it has been commonly admitted by the ignorant, 
that what could not be seen by mortal eye must 
necessarily be divine. Hence sacred, mijsteri^ 
ous, and divine, are synonymous terms ; and 
these imposing words have sufficed to place the 
human race on their knees to adore what seeks 
not their inflated devotion. 

The three mysteries which I have examined 
are received unanimously by all sects of Chris- 
tians ; but there are others on which the theolo- 
gians are not agreed. In fine, we see men, who 
after they have admitted, without repugnance, 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 109 

a certain number of absurdities, stop all of a 
sudden in the way, and refuse to admit more, 
• The Christian Protestants are in this case. — 
They reject, with disdain, the mysteries for 
which the Church of Rome shows; the greatest 
respect. Seeing, then, that our doctors, the 
most opposite to those of the Protestant, have 
adroitly multiplied mysteries, one is naturally 
led to conclude, they despaired of governing the 
mind of man, and commanding his purse, if there 
was any thing in their religion that was clear, 
intelligible, and natural. More mysterious than 
the priests of Egypt itself, they have found 
means 'to change every thing into mystery; 
the very movements of the body, usages the 
most indifferent, ceremonies the most frivolous, 
have become, in the powerful hands of the 
priests, sublime and divine mysteries. In the 
Roman religion all is magic, all is prodigy, all 
is supernatural. In the decisions of our theolo- 
gians, the side which they espouse is almost al- 
ways that which is the most abhorrent to rea- 
son, the most calculated to confound and over- 
throw common sense. * In consequence, our 
priests are by far the most rich, powerful, and 
considerable. The continual want which we 
have of their aid to obtain from Heaven that 
grace which it is their province to bring down 
for us, places us in continual dependence on 
those marvellous men who have received their 
commission to treat with the Deity, and become 
the ambassadors between Heaven and us. 

Each of our sacraments envelopes a great 
mystery. They are ceremonies to which the 



110 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

Divinity, they say, attaches some secret virtue, 
by unseen views, of w^hich we can form no ideas. 
In baptism^ without which no man can be sav- 
ed, the water sprinkled on the head of the child 
washes his spiritual soul, and carries away the 
defilement which is a consequence of the sin 
committed in the person of Adam, who sinned 
for all men. By the mysterious virtue of this 
water, and of seme words equally unintelligible, 
the infant finds itself reconciled to God, as his 
first father had made him guilty without his 
knowledge and consent. In all this. Madam, 
you cai^not by possibihty, comprehend the com- 
plication of these mysteries, with which no 
Christian can dispense, though, assuredly, there 
is' not one believer who knows what the virtue 
of the marvellous water consists in, which is ne- 
cessary for his regeneration. Nor can you 
Gonceive how the supreme and equitable Gover- 
nor of the universe could impute faults to those 
poor little children who have never been guilty 
of any transgressions, against either the laws of 
God or the laws of man. Nor can you com- 
prehend how a wise Deity can attach his favour 
to a futile ceremony, which, without changing 
the nature of the being who has derived an ex- 
istence, it neither commenced nor was consult- 
ed in, must, if administered in winter, be attend- 
ed with serious consequences to the health of 
the child. 

In Confirmation, a sacrament or ceremony, 
which, to have any value, ought to be adminis- 
tered by a bishop, the laying of the hands on the 
head of the young confirmant makes the Holy 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. Ill 

Spirit descend upon him, and procures the grace 
of God to uphold him in the faith. You see, 
Madam, that the efficacy of this sacrament is 
unfortunately lost in my person ; for, although 
in my youth I had been duly confirmed, I have 
,not been preserved against smiling at this faith, 
nor have I been kept invulnerable in the cre- 
dence of my priests and forefathers. 

In the sacrament of Penitence^ or confession, 
a ceremony which consists in putting a priest in 
possession of all one's faults, public or private, 
you w^ill discover mysteries equally marvellous. 
In favour of this submission, to which every 
good Christian is necessarily obliged to submit, 
a priest, himself a sinner, charged with full 
powers by the Deity, pardons and remits in His 
name the sins against which God is enraged. — 
God reconciles himself with every man who 
•humbles himself before the priest, and by means 
of this ambassador, the unfortunate sinner scales 
the battlements of heaven again, from which his 
crimes had excluded him. If this sacrament 
doth not always procure grace, very distin- 
guishing to those who use it, it has, at all events, 
the advantage of rendering them pliable to the 
clergy, who, by its means, find an easy sway in 
their spiritual empire over the human mind, an 
empire that enables them, not unfrequently, to 
disturb society, and more often the repose of 
families, and the very conscience of the person 
confessing. 

There is among the Catholics another sacra- 
ment, which contains the most strange mys- 
teries. It is that of the Eucharist, Our teach- 



112 LETTERS TO EUGENU* 

.ers# under pain of being damned, enjoin us to 
foeiieve that the Son of God is compelled by a 
priest to quit the abodes of glory, and to come 
and masque himself under the appearance of 
bread ! This bread becomes forthwith the body 
of God-— this God multiplies himself in all places, 
and at all times, when and where the priests, 
scattered over the face of the earth, find it ne- 
cessary to command his presence in the shape 
of bread — yet we see only one and the same 
God, who receives the homage and adoration of 
all those good people, w^ho find it very ridicul- 
ous in the Egyptians to adore lupins and onions. 
But the Catholics are not simply content with 
worshipping a bit of bread, which they consider 
by the conjurations of a priest as divine ; they 
eat this bread, and then persuade themselves 
that they are nourished by the body, or substance 
of God himself. The Protestants, it is true, do 
not admit a mystery so very odd ; and regard 
those who do, as real idolaters, i What then ? 
This marvellous dogma is, without doubt, of the 
greatest utility to the priests. In the eyes of 
those who admit it, they become very import-* 
ant gentlemen, who have the powder of disposing 
of the Deity, whom they make to descend be- 
tween their hands ; j and thus, a Catholic priest 
is, in fact, the creator of his God ! 

There is also Extreme Unction, a sacrament 
which consists in anointing with oil those sick 
persons who are about to depart into the other 
world , and which not only soothes their bodily 
pains, but also takes away the sins of their souls. 
If it produces these good effects, it is an invisi- 



LETTERS TO EUQENfA. US 

ble and mysterious method of manifesting ob-- 
vious results; for we frequently behold sick 
persons have their fears of death allayed^ though 
the operation may but too often accelerate their 
dissolution. But our priests are so full of chari- 
ty, and they interest themselves so greatly in 
the salvation of souls, that they like rather to 
risk their own health beside the sick-^bed of per- 
sons afflicted with the most contagious diseases^ 
than lose the opportunity of administering theit 
salutary ointment. 

Ordination, is another very mysterious cere-- 
mony, by which the Deity secretely bestows his 
invisible grace on those whom he has selected 
to fill the office of the holy priesthood. Accord- 
ing to the Catholic religion God gives to the 
' priests the power of making God himself, as we 
have shown above, a privilege which without 
doubt cannot be sufficiently admired. With res- 
pect to the sensible effects of this sacrament, and 
of the visible grace which it confers, they are en- 
abled by the help of some words and certain cere- 
monies, to change a profane man into one that 
is sacred ; that is to say, who is not profane any 
longer, By this spiritual metamorphosis, this 
man becomes capable of enjoying considerable 
revenues without being obliged to do any thing 
useful for society. On the contrary, heaven it- 
self confers on him the right of deceiving, of an- 
noying, and of pillaging the profane citizens, who 
labour for his ease and luxury. 

Finally, marriage is a sacrament that confers 
on the pair thus yoked, mysterious and invisible 
grace, of which you and I, Eugenia, have yet to 



114 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

acquire precise ideas. Protestants and infidels, 
who look upon marriage as a civil contract, and 
not as a sacrament, receive neither more nor less 
of its visible grace than the good Catholics. The 
former see not that those who are married en- 
joy by this sacrament any secret virtue, whence 
they may become more constant and faithful to 
the engagements they have contracted. And 
I believe both you and I, Madam, have heard of 
Cathohcs who, after marriage, have detested 
each other as cordially as any Protestants or in- 
fidels, ever detested their wives. 

I will not now enter upon the consideration of 
a multitude of other magic ceremonies, admitted 
by some Christian sectaries and rejected by 
others, but to which the devout, who embrace 
them, attach the most lofty ideas, in the firm 
persuasion, that God will, on that account, visit 
them with his invisible grace. All these cere- 
monies, doubtless contain great mysteries, and 
the method of handling or speaking of them is 
exceedingly mysterious. It is thus that the wa- 
ter on which a priest has pronounced a few 
words, contained in his conjuring book, acquires 
the invisible virtue of chasing away wicked 
spirits, who are invisible to our organs of sight, 
smell, apd touch. It is thus that the oil, on 
which a bishop has muttered some certain 
formula, becomes capable of communicating to 
men, and even to some inanimate substances, 
such as wood, stone, metals, and walls, those 
invisible virtues which they did not previously 
possess. In fine, in all the ceremonies of the 
church, we discover mysteries, and the vulgar, 



LETTERS OT EUGENIA. 115 

' who comprehend nothing of them, are not the 
less disposed to admire, to be fascinated with, 
and to respect with a bhnd devotion. But soon 
would they cease to have this veneration for 
these fooleries, if they comprehended the design 
and end the priests have in view by enforcing 
their observance* 

The priests of all nations have begun by be- 
ing charlatans, castle-builders, divines, and sor- 
cerers. We find men of these characters in 
nations the most ignorant and savage, where 
they live by the ignorance and credulity of 
others. They are regarded by their ignorant 
countrymen as superior beings endowed with 
supernatural gifts, favourites of the very Gods, 
because the uninquiring multitude see them per- 
form things which they take to be mighty mar- 
vellous, or which the ignorant have always con- 
sidered marvellous. In nations the most polish- 
ed, the people are alv/ays the same ; persons 
the most sensible are not often of the same ideas, 
especially on the subject of religion ; and the 
priests, authorised by the ancient folly of the 
multitude, continue their old tricks, and receive 
universal applause.— You are not, then, to be 
surprised, Madam, if you still behold our pon- 
tiffs and our priests exercise their magical 
rites, or rear castles before the eyes of people 
prejudiced in favour of their ancient illusions, 
and who attach to these mysteries a degree of 
consequence, seeing they are not in a condition 
to comprehend the motives of the fabricators. 
' Every thing that is mysterious has charms for 
the ignorant; the marvellous captivates all men; 
15 



116 LETTERS TO EtlGENlA. 9||| 

persons the most enlightened find it. difficult to 
defend themselves against these illusions. Hence 
you may discover that the priests are alv^ays 
opinionatively attached to these rites and cere- 
monies of their worship ; and it has never beeri 
without some violent revolution that they have 
been diminished or abrogated. The annihila- 
tion of a trifling ceremony has often caused 
rivers of blood to flow. The people have be- 
lieved themselves lost and undone when one 
bolder than the rest wished to innovate in mat- 
ters of religion ; they have fancied that they 
were to be deprived of inestimable advantages 
and invisible but saving grace, which they have 
supposed to be attached by the Divinity himself 
to some movements of the body. ' Priests the 
most adroit have overcharged religion with ce- 
remonieSj and practices, and mysteries. They 
fancied that all these were so many cords to 
bind the people to their interest, to allure them 
by enthusiasm, and render them necessary to 
their idle and luxurious existence, which is not 
spent without much money extracted from the 
hard earnings of the people, and much of that 
respect which is but the homage of slaves to 
spiritual tyrants. 

You cannot any longer, I persuade myself 
Madam, be made the dupe of these holy jugglers, 
who impose on the vulgar by their marvellous 
tales. You must now be convinced, that the 
things which I have touched upon as mysteries 
are profound absurdities, of which their inven- 
tors can render no reasonable account either to 
themselves or to others. You must now be 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 117 

^ certified, that the movements of the body, so 
much observed in the Catholic v^orship, as for 
example, the crossing of one's self, are ceremo* 
nies perfectly indifferent in themselves, and in 
which a Deity, wise and good, sees neither re- 
verence nor worship. You must be sensible 
now, that a reasonable Deity cannot be flatter- 
,ed by such puerile ceremonies, and that the 
omnipotent Sovereign of all nature is exempt 
from such wants as the ministers of religion 
ascribe to him, for all our devotions suppose in 
hin^ «ome exigency or want; that this Being, 
exempt from pride apd vanity, is not like the 
princes of this earth, who exact etiquette from 
iheir subjects ; that He attaches neither duty 
nor favour to vain ceremonies, disapproved of 
by reason, and repugnant to common sense^^' — 
You conclude, then, that all these marvellous 
rites, in which our priests announce so much 
mystery, and in which the people are taught to 
.consider the whole of religion as consisting, are 
nothing more than puerilities, to which people 
oi understanding ought never to submjt. That 
jthey are usages calculated principally to alarm 
the minds of the weak, and keep in bondage 
ihose who have not the courage to throw off 
Hm yoke of priests, 



118 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

LETTER VII. 



You now know, Madam, w^hat you ought to 
attach to the mysteries and ceremonies of that 
rehgion you propose to meditate on, and adore 
in silence. I proceed now to examine some of 
those practices to which the priests tell us the 
Deity attaches his complaisance and his favours. 
In consequence of the false, sinister, contradic- 
tory, and incompatible ideas, which all reveal- 
ed religions give us of the Deity, the priests 
have invented a crowd of unreasonable usages, 
but which are conformable to these erroneous 
notions that they have framed of this Being. 
' God is always regarded as a man full of passion, 
sensible to presents, to flatteries, and marks of 
submission ; or rather as a fantastic and punc- 
tihous sovereign, who is very seriously angry 
when we neglect to show him that respect and 
obeisance, which the vanity of earthly potentates 
exacts from their vassals. 

It is after these notions so little agreeable to 
the Deity, that the priests have conjured up a ' 
crowd of practices and strange inventions, ridi- 
culous, inconvenient, and often cruel; but by 
which they inform us we shall merit the good 
favour of God, or disarm the wrath of the Uni- 
versal Lord. With some all consists in prayers, 
offerings, and sacrifices, with which they fancy 
God is well pleased. They forget that a God 
who is good, who knows all things, has no need 
to be solicited ; that a God who is the author of 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 11(^ 

all things has no need to be presented with any 

Eart of his workmanship ; that a God who knows 
is power, has no need of either flatteries or 
submissions, to remind him of his grandeur, his 
power or his rights ; that a God who is Lord of all, 
- has no need of offerings which belong to himself; 
that a God who has no need of any thing from any 
created being, cannot be won by presents nor al- 
lured by the attempts of his creatures with the 
goods of this life, which they have received from 
the Divine bounty. 

One is compelled to make these simple reflec- 
tions, since all the religions in the world are 
filled wuth an infinite number of frivolous prac- 
tices, by which men have long strove to render 
themselves acceptable to the Deity, The priests 
who are always declared to be the ministers, 
the favourites, the interpreters of God's will, 
^ave discovered how they might most easily 
profit by the errours of mankind, and the pre- 
sents which they offer to the Deity. They are 
thence interested to enter into the false ideas of 
the people, and even to redouble the darkness 
of their mind. They have invented the means 
of pacifying a powerful unknown Being who 
disposes of their fate ; of exciting the devotion 
of the people, and their zeal for invisible beings, 
which they themselves have rendered visible. 
These priests have discovered that in labouring 
for the Gods they have heaped up wealth for 
themselves. They have taken of the presents, 
sacrifices, and offerings of the Gods, in order to 
procure for the devout, the blessings they would 
not be worthy of, did they not evince and prac- 
tice this liberality. 15* 



120 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

You thus perceive, Madam, how the priests 
have made common cause with the Divinity. 
Their policy thence obliged them to favour and 
increase the errours of the human kind. They 
talk of this ineffable Being as of an interested 
monarch, jealous, full of vanity, who gives that 
it may be restored to him again ; who exacts 
continual signs of submission and respect ; who 
desires without ceasing, that men may reiterate 
their marks of respect for him ; who wishes to 
be solicited, who bestows no grace unless it be 
importuned ; in fine, who is ever disposed to be 
appeased and won by gifts of which his minis- 
ters receive the greatest share. 

It is evident that it is on ideas that have been 
borrowed from lhe.> beings, and the practices 
that -surround ws, from sovereigns and their 
courts, that the priests have founded all their 
practices, their ceremonies and their rites which 
we behold current in all religions estabhshed in 
the world. Each sect has gone on to make its 
God the greatest, the most awful, the most des- 
potic, the most interested. The people acquaint- 
ed simply with human opinions, and full of de- 
basement, have adopted without examination, 
the inventions which the Deity have shown 
them as the fittest to obtain his favour, and 
soften his wrath. The priests fail not to adnpt 
these practices, which they have invented, to 
their own system of rehgion, and personal in- 
terest ; and the ignorant and vulgar have allow- 
ed themselves to be blindly led by these guides. 
Habit has familiarized them with things reason 
would never otherwise submit to, and they go 



LETTERS TO EtJGENIA. 121 

through the routine of their duties from genera- 
tion to generation, from father to son, without 
questioning the imposture. 

The infant as soon as it can be made to un- 
derstand any thing, is taught mechanically to 
join its little hands in prayer. His tongue is 
forced to lisp a formula which it does not com- 
prehend, addressed to a God which its under- 
standing can never conceive* In the arms of 
its nurse it is carried into the temple, or church, 
where its eyes are habituated to contemplate 
spectacJes, ceremonies, and pretended mysteries, 
of which even when it shall have arrived at old 
5ige, it will understand no more than it does now. 
If any one asks the good nurse i why she takes 
the child thither? Or the parents ^why they 
send it to church ? Both she and they, candidly 
tell you they do so out of revevence for sacred 
things, and that the child may become early ac- 
quainted with its duties to its God; yet these 
duties are unintelligible to themselves. Should 
you attempt to undeceive them in regard to 
these recurring futilities, either they will not lis- 
ten to you, or they will fly into a passion, and 
ask if you are going to sweep away the hope of 
the helpless, and expose the world to rapine and 
murder, rebellion and crime. These are their 
arguments. All men who strenuously fortify 
themselves in their good sense, and reason 
against these continual contradictions, appear 
ridiculous or insensible to the wise Christian, or 
they are reprobated by him as impious and blas- 
phemous ; for it is by this coarse appellation he 
: designates the men who tread not the same 



122 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

routine with himself, and who attach not their faith 
to notions that will not bear the scrutiny of reason, 

I What horrour does it not fill the Christian 
devotee with if you tell him that his priest is 
unnecessary ? j What would be his surprise if 
you were to prove to him, even on the princi- 
ples of his religion, that the prayers which in his 
infancy he had been taught to consider as the 
most agreeable to his God, are unworthy and 
unnecessary to this Deity ! For if God knows all, 
I what need is there to remind him of the wants 
of his creatures whom he loves? i If God is a 
father full of tenderness and goodness, is it ne- 
cessary to ask him to '^ give us day by day our 
daily bread ?" If this God, so good, foresaw the 
wants of his children, and knew much better 
than they what they could not know of them- 
selves, whence is it he bids them importune him 
to grant them their requests? If this God is im- 
mutable and wise, how can his creatures change 
the fixed resolution of the Deity ? If this God 
is just and good, how can he injure ys, or place 
us in a situation to require the use of that pray- 
er which entreats the Deity not to lead us into 
t3?npiation. 

You see by this, Madam, that there is but a 
very small portion of what the Christians pre- 
tend they understand and consider absolutely 
necesary, that accords at all with what they tell 
us has been dictated by God himself. You see 
that the Lord's Prayer itself, contains many ab- 
surdities and ideas, totally contrary to those 
which every Christian ought to have of his God. 
If you ask a Christian why he repeats without 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 123 

ceasing this vain formula on which he never re- 
, fleets, he can assign Kttle other reason, than that 
he was taught in his infancy to clasp his hands, 
repeat words, the meaning of which his priest, 
not himself, is alone bound to understand. He 
may probably add, that he has ever been taught 
to consider this formula requisite, as it was the 
most sacred and the most proper to merit the 
favour of Heaven. 

We should, without doubt, form the same 
judgment of many other prayers which our 
teachers recommend to us daily. And if we be- 
lieve them, man, to please God, ought to pass a 
large portion of his existence in suppUcating 
Heaven to pour down its blessings on him. But 
if God is good, if he cherishes his creatures, if 
he knows their w^ants, it seems superfluous to 
pray to him. If God changes not, he has never 
promised to alter his secret decrees, or, if he 
has, he is variable in his fancies, like man : i to 
what purpose are all our petitions to him ? ^ If 
God is offended with us, will he not reject pray- 
ers which insult his goodness, his justice, and in- 
finite wisdom ? 

I What motives, then, have our priests to in- 
culcate constantly the necessity of prayer? It 
is, that they may thereby hold the minds of man- 
kind in opinions more advantageous to them- 
selves. They represent God to us under the 
traits of a monarch difficult of access, who can- 
not be easily pacified, but of whom they are the 
ministers, the favourites, and servants. They 
become intercessors between this invisible So- 
vereign and his subjects of this nether world. 



124 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

They sell to the ignorant, their intercession 
with the All-powerful ; they pray for the people, 
and by society they are recompensed with real 
advantages, with riches, honours, and ease. It 
is on the necessity of prayer that our priests, our 
monks, and all religious men establish their lazy 
existence ; that they profess to w^in a place in 
heaven for their folio v>'ers and paymasters, who, 
without this intercession, could neither obtain 
the favour of God, nor avert his chastisements 
and the calamities the world is so often visited 
with. The prayers of the priests are regarded 
as a universal remedy for all evils. All the pnis- 
fortunes of nations are laid before these spiritual 
guides, who find public calamities a source of 
profit to themselves, as it is then they are amply 
paid for their supposed mediation betwepn the 
Deity and his suflering creatures. They never 
teach the people that these things spring fron) 
the course of nature and of laws they cannot 
controul. ; Oh I no. • They niake the world be- 
lieve they are the judgments of an angry God, 
The evils for which they can find no remedy 
are pronounced marks of the divine wrath, they 
are supernatural, and the priests must be ap- 
plied to. God, whom they call so good, appears 
sometimes 'obstinately deaf to their entreaties. 
Their common Parent, so tender, appears to de? 
range the order of nature to manifest his anger. 
The God who is so just, sometimes punishes mei) 
w^ho cannot divine the cause of his vengeance, 
Then, in their distress they flee to the priests, 
who never fail to find motives for the divine 
wrath. They tell them, that God has been of- * 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 125 

fended ; that he has been neglected ; ' that he 
requires prayers, offerings, and sacrifices. They 
pretend^ also, that he is appeased when his mi- 
nisters supplicate him. Without this interces- 
sion, they announce to the vdgar, that their har- 
vests will fail ; that their fields will be inundat- 
ed ; that pestilence, famine, war, and contagion 
\vill visit the earth; and when these misfor- 
tunes have arrived, they declare they may be 
removed by means of prayers. 

Should fear and terrour, allow the poor to 
treason, they will discover that all the evils they 
are afflicted with, as well as the good things of 
this life they have enjoyed, are necessary conse- 
quences of the order of nature. They will 
easily discover that a wise God, immutable in 
his conduct, cannot allow any thing to transpire- 
but according to those laws of which he is the 
author. They will discover that the calamities, 
sterility, maladies, contagions, and even death 
itself are effects as necessary as happiness, 
abundance, health, and life itself. They will 
find that wars, wants, and famine, a]*e often the 
- effects of human imprudence. We must submit 
to accidents which we cannot prevent, and we 
must bear up under those w^e could not foresee, 
with the same equanimity we would share good 
fortune that we had anticipated. Opinions that 
are unsophisticated and accordant to nature, 
stand in no need of such remedies as ore not 
within our reach. If they are above that, in 
vain shall we strive by an age of prayer to 
surmount them. Experience proves that men 
profit by exertion, manual or mental, rather than 



126 LETTERS TO EUGEMA. 

by the illusions of priestcraft, and the adoration 
of incomprehensible mummeries. \ Would that 
all men were stripped of their religious preju- 
dices, to see the question in this light ! 

Nor ought we to set value on the prayers of 
our priests, from this consideration. We dis- 
cover the inefficacy of their prayers, and the 
futility of their practices, from the httle effect 
which all these have on their own conduct ; yet 
these are the men who put the human race on 
their knees. They compel their votaries always 
to run down those who discredit their preten- 
sions. They terrify the weak minded by fright- 
ful ideas which they hold out to them of the 
Deity. They forbid them to reason; they make 
them deaf to reason, by conforming them to or- 
dinances the most out of the way, the most un- 
reasonable, and the most contradictory to the 
very principles on which they pretend to esta- 
blish them. They change practices, arbitrary 
in themselves, or, at most, indifferent and use- 
l-ess, into important duties, which they proclaim 
the most essential of all duties, and the most sa- 
cred and moral. They know that man ceases 
to reason in proportion as he suffers, or is 
wretched. Hence, if he experiences real mis- 
fortunes, the priests make sure of him ; if he is 
not unfortunate they menace him ; they create 
imaginary fears and troubles. 

In fine. Madam, when you wish to examine 
with your own eyes, and not by the help of the 
pretensions set up and imposed on you by the mi- 
nisters of religion, you will be compelled to ac- 
knowledge the things we have been considering, 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 127 

as useful to the priests alone, they are use- 
less to the Deity, and to society they are often 
very obviously pernicious. Of what utility 
can it be in any family, to behold an excess of 
devotion in the mother of that family. One 
would suppose it is not necessary for a lady to 
pass all her time in prayers, and in meditations, 
to the neglect of other duties. Much less is it 
the part of a Catholic mother to be closetted in 
mystic conversation with her priest, i Will 
her husband, her children, and her friends, ap- 
plaud her who loses most of her time in prayers 
and meditations, and practices, which can tend 
only to render her sour, unhappy, and discon- 
tented ? I Would it not be much better, that a 
father, or a mother of a family, should be occu- 
pied with what belonged to their domestic affairs, 
than to spend their time in masses, in hearing 
sermons, in meditating on mysterious and un- 
intelligible dogmas, or, boasting about exercises 
of piety that tend to nothing? 

Madam, i do you not find, in the country you 
inhabit, a great many devotees who are sunk 
in debt, whose foitune is squandered away on 
priests, and who are incapable of retrieving it? 
Content to put their conscience to rights on 
religious matters, they neither trouble them- 
selves about the education of their children, nor 
the arrangement of their fortune, nor the dis- 
charge of their debts. Such men as would be 
thrown into despair did they omit one mass, will 
consent to leave their creditors without their 
money, ruined by their negligence as much as 
by their principles. In truth, Madam, on what 
16 



128 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

side soever yoa survey this religion, you will 
not find it good for much. 

I What sha*9Hve say of those fetes which are 
so multiphed amongst us? i Are they not evi- 
dently pernicious to society? ' [Are not all 
days the same to the Eternal ? i Are there 
gala days in heaven? i Can God be honoured 
by the business of an artisan or a merchant, who, 
in place of earning bread on which his family 
may subsist, squanders away his time in the 
church, and afterwards goes to spend his money 
in the public-house? It is necessary, the priests 
will tell you, for man to have repose. But i will 
he not seek repose when he is fatigued by the 
labour of his hands? i Is it not more necessary 
that e'very man should labour in his vocation 
than go to a temple to chant over a service 
which benefits only the priests, or hear a sermon 
of which he can understand nothing ? .[And do 
not such as find great scrapie in doing a neces- 
sary labour on Sunday, frequently sit down and 
get drunk on that day, consuming in a few hours 
the receipts of their week's labour ? -But it is 
for the interest of the clergy that all other shops 
should be shut when theirs are open. We may 
thence easily dicover why fetes are necessary, 

I Is it not contrary to all the notions which we 
can form of the goodness and wisdom of the 
Divinity, that religion should form into duties 
both abstinence and privations ; or that peniten- 
ces and austerities, should be the sole proofs of 
virtue ? i What should be said of a father who 
should place his children at a table loaded with 
the fruits of the earth, but who, nevertheless, 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 129 

should debar them from touching certain of them, 
though both nature and reason, dictated their 
use and nutriment ? i Can we ihen suppose, 
that a Deity wise and good, interdicts to his crea- 
tures the enjoyment of innocent pleasures which 
may contribute to render life agreeable, or, that 
a God, who has created all things, every object 
the most desirable to the nourishment and health 
of man, should nevertheless forbid him their use ? 
The Christian religion appears to doom its vo- 
taries to the punishment of Tantalus. ' The most 
part of the superstitions in the world have made 
of God a capricious and jealous sovereign, W'ho 
amuses himself by tempting the passions and 
exciting the desires of his slaves, without per- 
mitting them the gratification of the one, or the 
enjoyment of the other. We see among all 
sects the portraiture of a chagrined Deity, the 
- enemy of innocent amusements, and offended at 
the well being of his creatures. We see in all 
countries many men so foolish as to imagine 
they will merit heaven by fighting against their 
nature, refusing the goods of fortune, and tor- 
menting thentiselves under an idea that they will 
thereby render themselves agreeable to God. 
Especially do they believe that they will by 
these means disarm the fury of God, prevent 
the inflictions of his chastisements, if they sacri- 
fice to the whims of priests the enjoyment 
of those pleasures which are the natural inhe- 
ritance of the human race. 

We find these atrocious, fanatical, and sense- 
less ideas in the Christian religion, which suppo- 
ses its God as cruel to exact sulTerings from men, 



180 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

as death from his only Son. If a God, exempt 
from all sin, is himself also the sufferer for the 
sins of all, which is the doctrine of those who 
maintain universal redemption, it is not surpris- 
ing to see men that are sinners making it a duty 
to assemble in large meetings, and invent the 
means of rendering themselves miserable. 

These gloomy notions have banished men to 
the desert. They have fanatically renounced 
society and the pleasures of life, to be buried 
alive, believing they would merit heaven if they 
afflicted themselves with stripes, and passed their 
existence in mummical ceremonies, as injurious 
to their health as useless to their country. And 
these are the false ideas by which the divinity is 
transformed into a tyrant as barbarous as insen- 
sible, who, agreeably io priestcraft^ has prescrib- 
ed how both men and women might Hve in ennui, 
penitence, sorrow, and tears ; for the perfection 
of monastic institutions consists in the ingenious 
art of self-torture. But sacerdotal pride finds 
its account in these austerities. Rigid monks 
glory in barbarots rules, the observance of 
which attracts the respect of the credulous, who 
imagine that men who torment themselves, are, 
indeed, the favourites of heaven. But these 
monks, who follow these austere rules, are fana- 
tics, who sacrifice themselves to the pride of the 
clergy who live in luxury and in wealth, al- 
though their duped, imbecile brethren have been 
known to make it a point of honour to die of fa- 
mine. 

i How often. Madam, has your attention not 
been roused when you recalled to mind the fate 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 131 

of the poor religious men of the desert, whom an 
unnecessary vow has condemned, as it were vo- 
luntarily, to a life as rigorous as if spent in a 
prison ! ' Seduced by the enthusiasm of youth, 
or forced by the orders of inhuman parents, they 
have been obliged to carry to the tomb the chains 
of their captivity. They have been obliged to 
submit without appeal to a stern superior, who 
finds no consolation in the discharge of his sla- 
vish task, but in making his empire more hard to 
those beneath him. You have seen unfortunate 
young ladies obliged to renounce their rank in 
society, the innocent pleasures o( youth, the joys 
of their sex, to groan for ever under a rigorous 
despotism to which indiscreet vov/s had bound 
them. *A1I monasteries present to us an odious 
group of fanatics, who have separated them- 
selves from society to pass the remainder of their 
lives in unhappiness. The society of these de- 
votees is calculated solely to render their lives 
mutually more unsupportable. But it seems 
strange that men should expect to merit heaven 
by surtering the torments of hell on earth ; yet 
so it is, and reason has too often proved insuffi- 
cient to convince them of the contrary. 

If this religion does not call all Christians to 
these sublime perfections, it nevertheless enjoins 
on all its votaries, suffering, and mortifying of 
the body. The church prescribe privations to 
all her children, and abstinence especially to the 
young ; these things they practice amongst us 
as duties ; and the devotees imagine they ren- 
der themselves very agreeable to the Divinity 
when they have scrupulously fulfilled those im- 

16* 



132 LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 

nute and puerile practices, by which they tell H5 
that the priests have proof whether their pati-^ 
ence and obedience be such as are dictated by, 
and acceptable to Heaven, 

j What a ridiculous idea is it, for exanriple, to 
make of the Deity, a trio of persons ; to teach 
the faithful that this Deity takes notice of what 
kinds of food his people eat ; that he is displeas- 
ed if they eat beef or mutton ; but that he is de- 
lighted if they eat beans and fish ! In good sooth, 
Madam,our priests . who sometimes gives ns very 
lofty ideas of God, please themselves but too 
often with vilely misrepresenting the Sovereign 
ofthe universe. 

The life of a good Christian, or of a devotee, 
is crowded with a host of useless practices, 
which would be, at least, pardonable if they pro- 
cured any good for society. But it is not for 
that purpose that our priests make so much to 
do about them ; ' they only wish to have submis- 
sive slaves, sufficiently blind to respect their ca- 
prices, as the orders of a wise God; sufficiently 
stupid to regard all their practices as divine du- 
ties, and they who scrupulously observe them 
as the real favourites of the Omnipotent. ^ What 
good can there result to the world from the ab- 
stinence of meats, so much enjoined on some 
Christians, especially when other Christians 
judge this injunction a very rediculous law, and 
contrary to reason and the order of things esta- 
bhshed in nature ? It is not difficult to perceive 
amongst us, that this injunction, openly violated 
by the rich, is an oppression on the poor, who are 
compelled to pay dearly for an indifferent, often 



iiETTERS TO EUGENIA. 133 

an unwholesome diet, that injures rather than 
repairs the natural strength of their constitution. 
■ Besides, i do not the priests sell this permission 
to the rich, to transgress an injunction the poor 
must not violate with impunity ? In fine, they 
seem to have multiplied our practices, our du- 
ties, and our tortures, to have the advantage of 
multiplying our faults, and thus strip us of a 
large portion of the harmless delights which na- 
ture bids us innocently enjoy* 

The more we examine religion, the more rea- 
son shall we have to be convinced that it is bene- ' 
ficial to the priests alone. Every part of this re- 
ligion conspires to render us submissive to the 
fantasies of our spiritual guides, to labour for 
their grandeur, to contribute to their riches. 
They appoint us to perform disadvantageous du- 
ties ; they prescribe impossible perfections, pur- 
posely that we may transgress ; they have there- 
by engendered in pious minds, scruples and diffi- 
culties which they condescendingly appease for 
money, A devotee is obliged to observe with- 
out ceasing the useless and frivolous rules of his 
priest, and even then he is subject to continual 
reproaches , he is perpetually in want of his 
priest to expiate his pretended faults with which 
he charges himself, and the omission of duties 
that he regards as the most important acts of his 
life, but which are rarely such as interest society 
or benefit it by their performance. By a train 
of religious prejudices with which the priests in- ■ 
fects the mind of their weak devotees, these be- 
lieve themselves infinitely more capable when 
Ihey have omitted some useless practice, than if 



134 LETTERS TO EI'GEyiA. 

they had committed some great injustice or atro- 
cious sin against humanity. It is commonly suf- 
ficient for the devotees to be on good terms with 
God, whether they be consistent in their actions 
with man, or in the practice of those duties they 
ow^e to society. But they who have set up a 
Divinity of their own making, can, of course, 
balance their conscience to the attributes of their 
God, though they may find them somewhat stub- 
born in benduisr to the rules of human conduct 
established among men by the experience of ages 
and their mutual dependance. 

Besides, Madam, i what real advantage does 
society derive from repeated prayers, abstinen- 
ces, privations, seclusions, meditations, and aus- 
terities, to which religion attaches so much va- 
lue ? I Do all the mysterious practices of the 
priests produce any real good ? i Are they ca- 
pable of calming the passions, of correcting vi- 
ces, and of giving virtue to those wiio most scru- 
pulously observe them ? i Do we not daily see 
persons who believe themselves "damned if they 
forget a mass,' if they eat a fowl on Friday, if 
they neglect a confession, though they are guilty 
at the same time of great direliction to society ? 
[Do they not hold the conduct of those very un- 
just, and very cruel, who happen to have the 
misfortune of not thinking and doing as they 
think and act ? These practices, out of which 
a great number of men have created essential 
duties, but too commonly absord all moral du- 
ties ; for if the devotees are over religious, it is 
rare to find them virtuously nice. Content with 
doing what religion requires, they trouble them- 



LETTERS TO EUQE.NIA. 135 

selves very little about other matters. They be- 
lieve themselves the favoured of God, and that 
it is a proof of this if they are detested by men, 
whose good opinion they are seldom anxious to 
deserve. The whole hfe of a devotee is spent 
in fulfilling with scrupulous exactitude duties in- 
different to God, unnecessary to himself and use- 
less to others. He fancies he is virtuous when 
he has performed the rites which his religion 
prescribes ; when he has meditated on myste- 
ries of which he understands nothing ; when he 
has struggled with sadness to do things in which 
a man of sense can perceive no advantage ; in 
fine, when he has endeavoured to practice as 
much as in him lies, the Evangelical, or Chris- 
tian virtues, in which he thinks all morality es- 
sentially consists. 

I shall proceed in my next letter to examine 
these virtues, and to prove to you that they are 
contrary to the ideas we ought to form of God, 
useless to ourselves, and often dangerous to 
others. In the mean time, 

I am &c. 



k 



LETTER Vlll. 



• If we believe the priests, we shall be persuad- 
ed, that the Christian religion, by the beauty of 
its morals, excels philosophy and all the other re- 
ligious systems in the world. According to them 
the unassisted reason of the human mind could 
never have conceived sounder doctrines of mo- 



136 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

rality, more heroical virtues, or precepts more 
beneficial to society. But this is not all ; the 
virtues known or practised, among the hea- 
thens are considered as false virtues ; far from 
deserving our esteem, and the favour of the Al- 
mighty, theyiare entitled to nothing but contempt, 
and, indeed, are flagrant sins in the sight of God. 
In short, the priests labour to convince us, that 
the Christian ethics are purely divine, and the 
lessons incalculated so subHme, that they could 
proceed from nothing less than the Ueity. 

If, indeed, we call that Divine which men can 
neither conceive nor perform; if by divine vir- 
tues we are to understand virtues to which the 
mind of man cannot possibly attach the least 
idea of utility ; if by divine perfections are meant 
those qualities which are not only foreign to the 
nature of man, but which are irreconcileably re- 
pugnant to it— then, indeed, we shall be compell- 
ed to acknowledge that the morals of Christiani- 
ty are divine, at least we shall be assured that 
they have nothing in common with that system 
of morality which arises out of the nature and re- 
lations of men, but 0:1 the contrary, that they, in 
many instances, confound the best conceptions 
we are able to firm of virtue. 

Guided by the light of reason, we comprehend 
under the name of virtue, those habitual dispo- 
sitions of the heart which tend to the happiness, 
and the real advantage of those with whom we 
associate, and by the exercise of which our fel- 
low-creatures are induced to feel a reciprocal 
interest in our welfare. Under the Christian 
system the name of virtues is bestowed upon dis- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 137 

positions which it is impossible to possess with- 
out supernatural grace, and ' which, when pos^ 
sessed, are useless if not injurious, both to our- 
selves and others. The morality of Christians 
is, in good truth, the morality of another world. 
' Like the philosopher of antiquity, they keep their 
eyes fixed upon the stars till they fall into a well, 
unperceived, at their feet. The only object 
which their scheme of morals proposes to itself 
is, to disgust their minds with the things of this 

' world, in order that they may place their entire 
affections upon things above, of which they have 
no kt owledge whatever ; tlieir happiness here 
below, • forms no part of their consideration ; 
this life, in the view of a Christian, is nothing 
but a pilgrimage, leading to another existence, 
infinitely more interesting to his hopes, because - 

- infinitely beyond the reach of his understanding. 
Besides, before we can deserve to be happy in 
the world which we do not know, we are in- 
formed that we must be miserable in the world 
which we do know ; and, above all things, in or- 
der to secure to ourselves happiness hereafter, 
it is especially necessary that we altogether re- • 
sign the use of our own reason ; that is to say, we 
must seal up our eyes in utter darkness, and sur- 
render ourselves to the guidance of our priests. 

• These are the principles upon which the fabric 
of Christian morals is evidently constructed. 

Let us now proceed, Madam, to a more de- 
tailed examination of the virtues upon which the 
Christian religion is built — these virtues are 
Evangelical, &c., if destitute of them, we are 
assured that it is in vain for us to seek the favour 

of th ^ Deity. 



138 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

Of these virtues the first is Faith, Accor- 
ding to the doctrine of the church, faith is the 
gift of God, a supernatural virtue, by means of 
which we are inspired with a firm behef in God, 
and in all that he has vouchsafed to reveal to 
man, although our reason is utterly unable to 
comprehend it. Faith is, says the church, 
founded upon the word of God, who can neither 
deceive nor be deceived. Thus faith supposes, 
that God has spoken to man— ^ but what evi- 
dence have we that God has spoken to man? 
The holy Scriptures, i Who is it that assures us 
the Holy Scriptures contains the word of God? 
It is the church. But ^ who is it that assures us 
the church cannot and will not deceive us? 
The Holy Scriptures. -Thus the Scriptures 
bear witness to the infallibility of the church — 
and the church, in return, testifies the truth of 
the Scriptures. From this statement of the case, 
you must perceive, that faith is nothing more 
than an implicit belief in the priests whose as- 
surances we adopt as the foundation of opinions 
in themselves incomprehensible. It is true, that 
as a confirmation of the truth of Scripture, we 
are refered to miracles— but it is these identical 
Scriptures which report to us and testify those 
very miracles. Of the absolute impossibility of 
any miracles, I flatter myself that I have alrea- 
dy convinced you. 

Besides, I cannot but think. Madam, that you 
must be, by this time, thoroughly satisfied how 
absurd it is to say that the understanding is con- 
vinced of any thing which it does not compre- 
hend ; the insight I have given you into the 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 13^ 

books which the Christians call sacred, must 
have left upon your mind a firm persuasion, that 
they never could have proceeded from a wise, a 
good, an omniscient, a just, and all-powerful God. 
If, then, we cannot yield them a real belief, what 
we call faith can be nothing more than a blind 
and irrational adherence to a system divised by 
priests, whose crafty selfishness has made them' 
careful from the earliest infancy to fill our 
tender minds with prepossessions in favour of 
their doctrines. Interested, however, as they 
are in the opinions which they endeavour tG« 
force upon us as truth, ' ^ is it possible for these 
priests to believe them themselves I Unquesti- 
onably not — the thing is out of nature. They 
are men like ourselves, furnished with the 
same faculties, and neither they nor v/e can be 
convinced of any thing which lies equally be- 
yond the scope of us all. If they possessed an 
additional sense, we should perhaps allow that 
♦ they might comprehend what is unintelligible to 
us ; but as we clearly see that they have no in- 
tellectual previleges above the rest of the species, 
we are compelled to conclude, that their faith, 
like the faith of others, is a blind acquiescence 
in opinions derived, without examination, from 
their predecessors ; and that they must be hypo- 
crites when they pretend to believe in doetrme& 
of the truth of which they cannot be convinced^. 
since these doctrines have been shown to be 
destitute of that degree of evidence which is ne- 
cessary to impress the mind with a feeling of 
their probability, much less of their certainty. 
It will be said that faith, or the faculty of be- 
17 



140 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

iieving things incredible, is the gift of God, and 
can only be known to those upon whom God 
has bestowed the favour. • My answer is that, 
if that be the case, we have no alternative but 
to wait till the grace of God shall be shed upon 
us — and that in the mean time we may be al- 
lowed to doubt whether credulity, stupidity, and 
the perversion of reason can proceed, a,s favours, 
from a rational Deity who has endowed us 
with the power ofthinking.-T-IfGod be infinitely 
wise, [how can folly and imbecility be pleasing 
to him ? If there were such a thing as faith, 
proceeding from grace, it would be the privi- 
lege of seeing things otherwise than as God 
has made them ; and if that were so, it follows, 
that the whole creation would be a mere cheat. 
j No man can believe the Bible to be the produc- 
tion of God without doing violence to every con- 
sistent notion that he is able to form of Deity ! 
I No man can believe that one God is three Gods, 
and that those three Gods are one God, without 
renouncing all pretention to common sense, and 
persuading himself that there is no such thing as 
certainty in mathematics ! 

Thus, Madam, we are bound to suspect that 
what the church calls a gift from above, a super- 
natural grace, is, in fact, a perfect blindness, an 
irrational credulity, a brutish submission, a vague 
uncertainty, a stupid ignorance, by which we are 
led to acquiesce, without investigation, in every 
dogma that our priests think fit to impose upon 
us — by which we are led to adopt, without 
knowing why, the pretended opinions of men 
who can have no better means of arriving at 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 141 

the truth than we have. In short, we are au- 
thorized in suspecting that no motive but that 
of blinding us, in order more effectually to de- 
ceive us, can actuate those men who are eter- 
nally preaching to us about a virtue which, if it 
could exist, would throw into utter confusion the 
simplest and clearest perceptions of the human 
mind. 

This supposition is amply confirmed by the 
conduct of our ecclesiastics— forgetting what 
they have told us, that grace is the gratuitous 
present of God, bestowed or withheld at his 
sovereign pleasure, they nevertheless indulge 
their wrath against all those who have not re- 
ceived the gift of faith ; they keep up one in- 
cessant anathema against all unbelievers, and 
nothing less than absolute extermination of he- 
resy can appease their anger wherever they 
have the strength to accomplish it. So that he- 
retics and unbelievers are made accountable for 
the grace of God, although they never received 
it ; they are punished in this world for those 
advantages which God has not been pleased to 
extend to them in their journey to the next. • In 
the estimation of priests and devotees, the want 
of faith is the most unpardonable of all offences 
-T^it is precisely that offence which, in the cruel- 
ty of their absurd injustice, they visit with the 
last rigours of punishment, for you cannot be 
ignorant. Madam, that in nil countries where 
the clergy possess sufficient influence, the 
flames of priestly Charity are lighted up to con- 
sume all those who are deficient in the prescri- 
bed allowance of faith. 



142 LETTERS TO EUGENlAi 

When we inquire the motive for their unjust 
and senseless preceedings, we are told that faith 
is the most necessary of all things, that faith is 
of the most essential service to morals, that with-^ 
out faith a man is a dangerous and wicked 
wretch, a pest to Society. And, after all, i is it 
our own choice to have faith? ^Can we be- 
lieve just what we please ? i Does it depend 
upon ourselves not to think a proposition absurd 
which our understanding shows us to be absurd? 
I How could we avoid receiving, in our infancy, 
whatever impressions and opinions our teachers 
and relations chose to implant in us ? i And 
where is the man who can boast that he has 
faith — that he is fully convinced of mysteries 
which he cannot conceive, and wonders which 
he cannot comprehend ? 

Under these circumstances [ how can faith 
be serviceable to morals ? If no one can have 
faith but upon the assurance of another, and con- 
sequently cannot entertain a real conviction, 
^what becomes of the social virtues? Admit- 
ting that faith were possible, what connection 
can exist between such occult speculations and 
the manifest duties of mankind, duties which are 
palpable to every one who, in the least, consults 
his reason, his interest or the welfare of the so- 
ciety to which he belongs. • Before I can be 
satisfied of the advantages of justice, temper- 
ance, and benevolence, [must I first believe in 
the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, and 
all the fables of the Old Testament? If I be- 
lieve in all the atrocious murders attributed by 
the Bible to that God whom I am bound to con- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 143 

sider as the fountain of justice, wisdom, and 
goodnessj i is it not likely that I shall feel encou- 

- raged to the commission of crimes when I find 

- them sanctioned by such an example ? Although 
unable to discover the value of so many mys- 
teries which I cannot understand, or of so many 
fanciful and cumbersome ceremonies prescribed 
by the church, i am I, on that account, to be de- 
nounced as a more dangerous citizen than those 
who persecute, torment, and destroy every one 
of their fellow-creatures who does not think and 
act at their dictation ? The evident result of 
all these considerations, must be, that he who 
has a lively faith, and a blind zeal for opinions 
contradictory to common sense, is more irra- 
tional, and consequently more wicked than the 
man whose mind is untainted by such detestable 
doctrines ; for when once the priests have gain- 
ed their fatal ascendency over his mind, and 
have persuaded him that, by committing all 
sorts of enormities, he is doing the work of the 
Lord, there can be no doubt that he will make 
greater havoc in the happiness of the world, 
than the man whose reason tells him that such 
excesses cannot be acceptable in the sight of 
God. 

The advocates of the church will here inter- 
rupt me, by alleging that if divested of those 
sentiments which religion inspires, men would 
no longer live under the influence of motives 
strong enough to induce an abstinence from vice, 
or to urge them on in the career of virtue when 
obstructed by painful sacrifices. In a word, it 
will be affirmed that unless men are made to 
17* 



144 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

feel a conviction of rewards and punishments 
hereafter, they are released from every motive 
to fulfil their duties to each other in the present 
life. 

You are doubtless, Madam, quite sensible of 
the futility of such pretences, put forth by priests,- 
who, in order to render themselves more ne- 
cessary, are indefatigable in endeavouring to 
persuade us that their system is indispensable to 
the maintenance of social order. To annihilate 
their sophistries it is sufficient to reflect upon 
the nature of man, his true interests, and the end 
for which society is formed. Man is a feeble 
being, whose necessities render him constantly 
dependent upon the support of others, whether 
it be for the preservation or the pleasure of his 
existence ; he has no means of interesting others 
in his welfare except by his manner of conduct- 
ing himself towards them ; that conduct w^hich 
renders him an object of affection to others is 
called virtue — whatever is pernicious to soci- 
ety is called crime— and where the consequen- 
ces are injurious only to the individual himself, 
it is called vice. Thus all men must immedi- 
ately perceive that they consult their own hap- 
piness by advancing that of others — that vices, 
however cautiously disguised from public obser- 
vation, are, nevertheless, fraught with ruin to 
those who practice them^and that crimes are 
sure to render their perpetrators odious or con- 
temptible in the eyes of their associates. In 
short, education, public opinion, and the laws 
point out to us our mutual duties much more 
clearly than the chimeras of an incomprehensi- 
ble religion. 



LETTERS TO EtJGENIA. 145 

The idea of self-preservation being implanted 
in us by nature, we require no priest to suggest 
it to us ; experience informs us by what means 
we best consult our own safety ; instructed by 
her faithful and salutary admonitions we avoid 
those excesses which might be injurious; we de- 
bar ourselves from those gratifications which, in 
their consequences, might render us unhappy ; 
we submit to momentary privations in order to 
secure those lasting advantages which we should 
have forfeited by unreasonable indulgence. 

Here, Madam, you have a short but perfect 
summary of all morals, derived, as they must 
be,' from the nature of man, the uniform experi- 
ence, and the universal reason of mankind. 
These precepts are compulsory upon our minds, 
for they show us that the consequences of our 
conduct flow from our actions with as natural 
and inevitable a certainty as the return of a 
stone to the earth after the impetus is exhaust- 
ed which detained it in the air. It is natural 
and inevitable that the man who employs him- 
self in doing good must be preferred to the man 
who does mischief Every thinking being must 
be penetrated with the truth of this incontro- 
vertible maxim, and all the ponderous volumes 
of theology that ever were composed can add 
nothing to the force of his conviction; every 
thinking being will, therefore avoid a conduct 
calculated to injure either himself or others ; he 
will feel himself under the necessity of doing 
good to others, as the only method of obtaining 
solid happiness for himself, and of conciliating 
to himself those sentiments on the part of others. 



14G LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

without which society would be worse than 
sohtude. 

'I Can any thing be more obvious,Madam, than 
that faith has no concern in the support of mor- 
ahty? You see how widely separated are 
these aeriel notions from the practical obliga- 
tions arising out of the nature of things. ■ In fact, 
the more mysterious and incomprehensible are 
the dogmas of the church, the more likely are 
they to draw us aside from the plain dictates of 
Nature and the straight-forward directions of 
Reason, whose voice is incapable of misleading 
us. A candid survey of the causes which pro- 
duce an infinity of evils that afflict society, will 
quickly point out the speculative tenets of the- 
ology as their most fruitful source. The intox- 
ication of enthusiasm and the phrenzy of fanat- 
icism concur in overpowering reason, and by 
rendering men blind and unreflecting, convert 
them into enemies both of themselves and the 
rest of the world. It is impossible for the wor- 
shippers of a tyrannical, partial, and cruel God, 
to practice the duties of justice and philanthro- 
py. As soon as the priests have succeeded in 
stifling within us the commands of Reason, they 
have already converted us into slaves, in whom 
they can kindle whatever passions it may please 
them to inspire us with. 

Their interest, indeed, requires that we should 
be slaves. They exact from us the surrender 
of our reason, because our reason contradicts 
their impostures, and would ruin their plans of 
aggrandizement. Faith is the instrument by 
which they enslave us, and make us subservient 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 147 

to their own ambition. Hence arises their zeal 
for the propagation of the faith ; hence arises 
their implacable hostility to science, and to all 
those who refuse submission to their yoke ; 
hence arises their incessant endeavour to estab- 
lish the dominion of Faith (that is to say, their 
own dominion), even by fire and sword, the only 
arguments they condescend to employ. 

It must be confessed that society derives but 
little advantage from this supernatural faith 
which the church has exalted into the first of 
virtues. As it regards God, it is perfectly use- 
less to him, since if he wishes mankind to^ be 
convinced, it is sufficient that He wills them to 
be so. It is utterly unworthy of the supreme 
wisdom of God, who cannot exhibit himself to 
mortals in a manner contradictory to the reason 
with which he has endowed them. It is un- 
worthy of the divine justice, which cannot re- 
quire from mankind to be convinced of that 
which they cannot understand. It denies the 
very existence of God himself, by inculcating a 
belief totally subversive of the only rational idea 
we are able to form of the Divinity. 

As it regards moraUty, faith is also useless. 
Faith can add nothing to the inherent sanctity 
of morals, nothing to their importance. Faith 
is not only useless, but injurious to society, since, 
under the plea of its pretended necessity, the 
world is frequently disfigured by war and blood- 
shed. In short, faith is self-contradictory — 
•since, by it, we are required to believe in things 
inconsistent with each other, and even incom- 
patible with the principles laid down in the 



148 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

books which we have already investigated, and 
which contain what we are commanded to be- 
lieve. 

I To whom then is faith found to be advan- 
tageous? -To a few men only, who, availing 
themselves of its influence to degrade the hu- 
man mind, contrive to render the labour of the 
whole world tributary to their own luxury, 
splendour, and power. ^Are the nations of 
the earth any happier for their faith, or their 
blind rehance on priests ? Certainly not. l^ook 
round the universe and confess, with me, that 
in every country where the lofty church over- 
shadows and darkens the land, there neither 
morahty nor virtue, neither industry nor hap- 
piness can take root in the soil ;'but on the con- 
trary, wherever the priests are powerful, there 
the people are sure to be found abject in their 
minds, and squalid in their condition. 

But Hope — Hope, the second in order of the 
Christian perfections, is ever at hand to console 
us for the evils inflicted by Faith. We are 
commanded to be firmly convinced that those 
who have faith, that is to say, those who believe 
in priests, shall be amply rewarded in the other 
world for their meritorious submission in this. 
Thus hope is founded on faith, in the same man- 
ner as faith is established upon hope — faith en- 
joins us to entertain a devout hope that our 
faith will be rewarded, i And what is it we 
are told to hope for ? For unspeakable bene- 
fits — that is, I benefits for which language con- 
tains no expression ! So that, after all, we 
know not what it is we are to hope for. i And 



LETTERS TQ EUGENIA. 149 

how can we feel a hope or even a wish for any 
object that is undefinable ? Really, these priests 
carry their presumption very far in everlasting- 
ly prating to us about things of which they, at 
the same time, acknowledge it is impossible for 
us to form any idea. 

It thus appears, that hope and faith have one 
common foundation ; the same blow which over- 
turns the one necessarily levels the other with 
the ground. But let us pause a moment, and 
endeavour to discover the advantages of Chris- 
tian hope amongst men. It encourages to the 
practice of virtue; it supports the unfortunate 
under the stroke of affliction; and consoles the 
believer in the hour of adversity. But i what 
encouragement, what support, what consolation 
can be imparted to the mind from these unde- 
fined and undefinable shadows? No one, in- 
deed, will deny, that hope is sufficiently useful 
to the priests, who never fail to call in its assist- 
ance for the vindication of Providence, when- 
•ever any of the elect have occasion to complain 
of the unmerited hardship or the transient in- 
justice of his dispensations. Besides, these 
priests, notwithstanding their beautiful systems, 
find themselves unable to fulfil the high-sound- 
ing promises they so liberally make to all the 
faithful, and are frequently at a loss to explain 
the evils which they bring upon their flocks by 
means of the quarrels they engage in, and the 
false notions of religion they entertain ; on these 
occasions the priests have a standing appeal to 
hope, telling their dupes, that man was not 
created for this world, that Heaven is his home, 



150 LETTERS TO EUGENIA 

and that his sufferings here will be counterbal- 
anced by indescribable bliss hereafter. Thus, 
like quacks, whose nostrums have ruined the' 
health of their patients, they have still left to 
themselves the advantage of selling hopes to 
those w^hom they know themselves unable to 
cure. Our priests resemble some of our phy- 
sicians, who begin by frightening us into our 
complaints, in order that they may make us cus- 
tomers for the hopes, which they offer us at an 
exorbitant price. This traffic constitutes, in-: 
reality,* all that is called religion. 

The third of the Christian virtues is Charity ;: 
that is, to love God above all things, and our 
neighbours as ourselves. But before we are 
required to love God above all things, it seems 
reasonable that religion should condescend ta 
represent him as worthy of our love. In good 
faith. Madam, i is it possible to feel that the God 
of the Christians is entitled to our love ? [Is it 
possible to feel any other sentiments towards himi 
than those of aversion, when we find him depict- 
ed as a partial, capricious, cruel, revengefulv 
jealous, and sanguinary tyrant? ^How^ can 
we sincerely love the most terrible of Beings? 
I The living God, into whose hands it is dreardful 
to think of falling ? i The God who can con- 
sign to eternal damnation those very creatures 
who, without his own consent, would never have 
existed ? i Are our theologians aware of what 
they say, when they tell us that the fear of God 
is the fear of a child for its parent, which is 
mingled with love ? i Are we not bound to hate, 
— can we by any means avoid detesting a bar- 



LETTERS TO EtTGENIA. 151 

barous father, whose injustice is so boundless as 
to punish the whole human race, though inno- 
cent, in order to revenge himself upon two indi- 
viduals for the sin of the apple, which sin he 
himself might have prevented if he had thought 
proper ? In short, Madam, it is a physical im- 
possibility to love, above all things, a God, whose 
whole conduct, as described in the Bible, fills us 
with a freezing horrour. If, therefore, the love 
of God, as the Jansenists assert, is indispensable 
to salvation, we cannot wonder to find that the 
elect are so few. Indeed, there are not many 
persons who can restrain themselves from hating 
this God ; and the doctrine of the Jesuits is, that 
to abstain from hating him is sufficient for sal- 
vation. The power of loving a God, whom re- 
ligion paints as the most detestable of Beings, 
would, doubtless, be a proof of the most super- 
natural grace, that is, a grace the most contrary 
to nature ; to love that which we do not know, 
is, assuredly, sufficiently difficult ; to love that 
which we fear, is still more difficult ; but to love 
that which is exhibited to us in the most repul- 
sive colours, is manifestly impossible. 

We must, after all this, be thoroughly con- 
vinced that, except by means of an invisible 
grace never communicated to the profane, no 
Christian in his sober senses can love his God ; 
even those devotees who pretend to that hap- 
piness are apt to deceive themselves — their con- 
duct resembles that of hypocritical flatterers, 
who, in order to ingratiate themselves with an 
odious tyrant, or to escape his resentment, make 
every profession of attachment, whilst, at the 

18 



152 LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 

bottom of their hearts, they execrate him ; or, 
on the other hand, they must be condemned as 
enthusiasts who, by means of a heated imagina- 
tion, become the dupes of their own illusions^ 
and only view the favourable side of a God, de- 
clared to be the fountain of all good, yet, never- 
theless, constantly delineated to us with every 
feature of wickedness. Devotees, when sincere, 
are like women given up to the infatuation of a 
blind passion by which they are enamoured with 
lovers, rejected by the rest of the sex as unwor- 
thy of their affection. - It was said by Madame 
de Sevigne, that she loved God, as a perfectly 
well-bred Gentleman whom she had never been 
acquainted with. Bat i can the God of the 
Christians be esteemed a well-bred gentleman ? 
Unless her head was turned, one would think 
that she miust have been cured of her passion by 
the slightest reference to her imaginary lover's 
portrait as drawn in the Bible, or as it is spread 
upon the canvass of our theological artists. 

With regard to the love of our neighbour, 
where was the necessity of religion to teach us 
our duty, which as men we cannot but feel, of 
cherishing sentiments of good-will towards each 
other. It is only by showing in our conduct an 
affectionate disposhion to others that we can 
produce in them correspondent feelings towards 
ourselves. The simple circumstance of being 
men is quite sufficient to give us a claim upon 
the heart of every man who is susceptible of the 
sweet sensibilities of our nature, i Who is bet- 
ter acquainted than yourself, Madam, with this 
truth ? I Does not your compassionate soul ex- - 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 153 

|>erience, at every rTiOment, the delightful satis- 
faction of solacing the unhappy ? Setting aside 
the superfluous precepts of religion, ^ think you 
that you could by any efforts, steel your heart 
against the tears of the unfortunate ? ^ Is it not 
by rendering our fellow-creatures happy that 
we estabhsh an empire in their hearts ? Enjoy 
then, Madam, this delightful sovereignty ; con- 
tinue to bless with your beneficence all that 
surround you ; the consciousness of being the 
dispenser of so much good will always sustain 
your mind with the most gratifying self-applause ; 
those who have received your kindness will re- 
ward you with their blessings, and afford you 
the tribute of affection, which mankind are ever 
eager to lay at the feet of their benefactors. 

Christianity, not satisfied with recommend- 
ing the love of our neighbour, superadds the 
injunction of loving our enemies. This precept 
attributed to the Son of God himself, forms the 
ground on which our divines claim for their re- 
ligion a superiority of moral doctrine over all 
that the philosophers of antiquity were known 
to teach. Let us, therefore, examine how far 
this precept admits of being reduced to prac- 
tice. • True, that an elevated mind may easily 
place itself above a sense of injuries — a noble 
spirit retains no resentful recollections— a great 
soul revenges itself by a generous clemency, 
but it is an absurd contradiction to require that 
a man shall entertain feelings of tenderness and 
regard for those whom he knows to be bent on 
his destruction, — this love of our enemies, which 
Christianity is so vain of having promulgated, 



154 LETTERS TO EtfCiEiflA. 

turns out then to be an impracticable command- 
ment, belied and denied by every Christian 
at every moment of his life, j How preposte- 
rous to talk of loving that which annoys us ! 
i Of cherishing an at'tachment for that which 
gives us pain— of receiving an outrage with joy 
—of loving those who subject us to misery and 
suffering ! No ; in the midst of these trials, our 
firmness may perhaps be strengthened by the 
hope of a reward hereafter, but it is a mere fal- 
lacy to talk of our entertaining a sincere love 
for those whom we deem the authors of our 
afflictions — the least that we can do is to avoid 
them, which will not be looked upon as a very 
strong indication of our love. 

Notwithstanding the solemn formality with 
which the Christian religion obtrudes upon us 
these vaunted precepts of love of our neighbour, 
love of our enemies, and forgiveness of injuries, 
it cannot escape the observation of the weakest 
amongst us, that those very men who are the 
loudest in praising, are also the first and most 
constant in violating them. Our priests espe- 
cially seem to consider themselves exempt from 
the troublesome necessity of adopting for their 
own conduct a too literal interpretation of this 
divine law. They have invented a most con- 
venient salvo, since they affect to exclude all 
those who do not profess to think as they dic- 
tate, not only from the kindness of neighbours, 
but even from the rights of fellow-creatures. ' On 
this principle they defame, persecute, and de- 
stroy every one who displeases them, i When 
do you see a priest forgive ? j When revenge 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 155 

is out of his reach ! But it is never their own 
injuries they punish— it is never their own ene- 
mies they seek to exterminate. ' j Their disin- 
terested indignation burns with lesentment 
against the ' enemies of the Most High, who, 
without tlieir assistance, would be incapable of 
adjusting his own quarrels ! * By an unaccounta- - 
ble coincidence, however, it is sure to happen 
that the enemies of the church are the enemies 
of the Most High, who never fail to make com- 
mon cause with the ministers of the faith, and 
who would take it extremely ill if his ministers 
should relax in the measure of punishment due 
to iheir common enemy. Thus our priests are 
cruel and revengeful from pure zeal^they 
would ardently wish to forgive their own ene- 
mies, j but how could thiey justify themselves to 
the God of Mercies, if they extended the least 
indulgence to his enemies ! 

A true Christian loves the Creator, above all 
things, and consequently he must love him in 
preference to the creature. We feel a lively 
interest in every thing that concerns the object 
of our love ; from all which it follows, that we 
must evince our zeal, and even, when necessary, 
we must not hesitate to exterminate our neigh- 
bour, if he says or does what is displeasing or 
injurious to God. In such a case, indifference 
would be criminal — a sincere love of God breaks 
out into a holy ardour in his cause, and our me- 
rit rises in proportion to our violence. 

These notions, absurd as they are, have been 
sufficient in every age to produce in the world 
a multitude of crimes, extravagancies, and fol- 

18* 



156 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

lies, the legitimate offspring of a religious zeal 
Infatuated fanatics, exasperated by priests 
against each other, have been driven into mutu- 
al hatred, persecution, and destruction; they 
have thought themselves called upon to avenge 
the Almighty; they have carried their insane 
delusions so far as to persuade themselves, that 
the God of clemency and goodness could look 
on with pleasure while they murdered their bre- 
thren ; in the astonishing blindness of their stu- 
pidity, they have imagined that in defending the 
temporahties of the church, they were defend- 
ing God himself. In pursuance of these errours, 
contradicted even by the description which they 
themselves give us of the Divinity, the priests of 
every age have found means to introduce con- 
fusion into the peaceful habitations of men, and 
to destroy all who dared to resist their tyranny. 
Under the laughable idea of revenging the all- 
powerful Creator, these priests have discovered 
the secret of revenging themselves, and that too, 
without drawing down upon themselves the ha- 
tred and execration so justly due to their vindic- 
tive fury and unfeeling selfishness. • j In the 
name of the God of nature, they stifled the voice 
of nature in the breasts of men ; in the name of 
the God of goodness they incited men to the 
fury of wild beasts ; in the name of the God of 
mercies, they prohibited all forgiveness ! The 
earth has never ceased to groan with the rava- 
ges committed by maniacs, under the influence 
of that zeal which springs from the Christian 
doctrine of the love of God. * The God of the 
Christians, like the Janus of Roman mythology^ 
has two faces; sometimes he is represented 



LETTERS TO EUGEMA, 157 

with the benign features of mercy and goodness ; 
sometimes murder, revenge, and fury issue from 
his nostrils. And what is the consequence but that 
the Christians are much more easily terrified at 
his frightful aspect, than they are ri3covered from 
their fears by his aspect of mercy ; having been 
taught to view him as a capricious being, they 
are naturally mistrustful of him, and imagine 
that the safest part they can act for themselves 

• is to set about the work of vengeance with great 
zeal; they conclude that a cruel master cannot 
find fault with cruel imitators, and that his ser- 
vants cannot render themselves more accept- 
able than by extirpating all his enemies. 

The preceding remarks show very clearly, 
Madam, the highly pernicious consequences 
which result from the zeal engendered by the 
love of God. ' If this love is a virtue, its benefits 
are confined to the priests, who arrogate tc 
themselves the exclusive privilege of declaring 

' when God is offended ; who absorb all the oflFer- 
ings, and monopolize all the homage of the de- 
vout ; who decide upon the opinions that please 
or displease him; who undertake to inform 
mankind of the duties this virtue requires from 
them, and of the proper time and manner of 
performing them ; who are interested in render- 
ing those duties cruel and intimidating in order 

' to frighten mankind into a profitable subjection ; 
who convert it into the instrument of gratifying 
their own malignant passions, by inspiring men 
with a spirit of headlong and raging intolerance, 
which, in its furious course of indiscriminate de- 
struction, holds nothing sacred, and which has 
inflicted incredible ravages upon all Christian 
countries. 



158 LETTERS TO EUGENIA^ 

In conformity with such abominable princi- 
ples, 'a Christian is bound to detest and destroy 
all whom the church may point out as the ene- 
mies of God. Having admitted the paramount 
duty of yielding their entire affections to a rigor- 
ous master, quick to resent, and offended even 
with the involuntary thoughts and opinions of his 
creatures, they of course, feel themselves bound 
by entering with zeal into his quarrels, to obtain 
for him a vengeance worthy of a God, that is 
to say, a vengeance that knows no bounds. A con 
duct like this is the natural offspring of those 
revolting ideas which our' priests give us of the 
Deity. A good Christian is, therefore, neces- • 
sarily intolerant. It is true that Christianity in 
the pulpit preaches nothing but mildness, meek- 
ness, toleration, peace, and concord ; but Chris- 
tianitv in the world is a strans^er to all these 
virtues, nor does she ever exercise them, except 
when she is deficient in the necessary power to 
give effect to her destructive zeal.-r-The real truth 
of the matter is, that Christians think themselves 
absolved from every tie of humanity, except with 
those who think as they do, who profess to believe 
the same creed ;-^they have a repugnance, more 
or less decided, against all those who disagree- 
with their priests in theological speculation. — 
How common it is to see persons of the mildest 
character and most benevolent disposition, re- 
gard with aversion the adherents of a different 
sect from their own ; the reigning religion, that 
is, the religion of the sovereign, or of the priests 
in whose favour the sovereign declares himself, 
crushes all rival sects, or at least, makes them 
fully sensible of its superiority and its hatred, in 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 159 

a manner extremely insulting, and calculated to 
raise their indignation. By these means it fre- 
quently happens that the deference of the prince 
to the wishes of the priests, has the effect of 
alienating the hearts of his most faithful subjects, 
and brings him that execration which ought in 
justice, to be heaped exclusively upon his sanc- 
timonious instigators. 
•In short, the private rights of conscience are 

- no where sincerely respected ; the leaders of 
the various religious sects begin, in the very 
cradle, to teach all Christians to hate and des- 
pise each other about some theological point 

' which nobody can understand. The clergy, 
when vested with power, never preach tolera- 
tion ; on the contrary, they consider every man 
as an enemy who is a friend to religious free- 

• dom, accusing him of lukewarmness, infidelity, 
and secret hostility— in short, he is denomina- 
ted a false brother. * The Sorbonne declared 
in the sixteenth century, that it was heretical to 
say that heretics ought not to be burnt. The 

• ferocious SL Austin preached toleration at one 
period, but it was before he was duly initiated in 
the mysteries of the sacerdotal policy, which is 
ever repugnant to toleration. Persecution is 
necessary to our priests, to deter mankind from 
opposing themselves to their avarice, their am- 
bition, their vanity, and their obstinacy. The 
sole principle which holds the church together 

• is that of a sleepless watchfulness on the part of 
all its members to extend its power, to increase 
the multitude of its siaves, to fix odium on all who 
hesitate to bend their necks to its yoke, or who 
refuse their assent to its arbitrary decisions. 



160 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

Our divines have, therefore, you see, very 
good reasons for raising huniility into the rank 
of virtue. An amiable modesty, a diffident 
mildness of demeanour, are unquestionably cal- 
culated to promote the pleasures and the ad- 
vantages of society ; it is equally certain that 
insolence and arrogance are disgusting, that 
they wound our self-love, and excite our aver- 
sion by their repulsive conduct ; — but that amia- 
ble modesty which charms all who come with- 
in its influence, is a far diflTerent quality from 
that which is designated humility in the vocabu- 
lary of Christians. A truly humble Christian 
despises his own unworthiness, avoids the es- 
teem of others, mistrusts his own understand- 
ing, submits with docihty to the unerring guid- 
ance of his spiritual masters, and piously resigns 
to his priest the clearest and most irrefutable 
conclusions of reason. 

But I to what advantage can this pretended 
virtue lead its followers ? i How can a man of 
sense and integrity despise himself? lis not 
pubKc opinion the guardian of private virtue ? 
•If you deprive men of the love of glory, and the 
desire of deserving the approbation of their fel- 
low citizens, i are you not divesting them of the 
noblest and most powerful incitements by which 
they can be impelled to benefit their country ? 
I What recompense will remain to the benefac- 
tors of mankind, if, first of all, we are unjust 
enough to refuse them the praise they merit, 
and afterwards debar them from the satisfaction 
of self-applause, and the happiness they would 
feel in the consciousness of having done good to 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 161 

an ungrateful world 1 What infatuation, what 
, amazing infatuation, to require a man of upright 
'character, of talents, intelligence, and learning, 
' to think himself on a level with a selfish priest, 
or a stupid fanatic, who deal out their absurd 
fables and incoherent dreams. Cur priests are 
never weary of telling their flocks that pride 
leads on to infidelitv, and that an humble and 
submissive spirit is alone fitted to receive the 
truths of the gospel. In good earnest, i should 
we not be utterly bereft of every claim to the 
name of rational beings, if w^e consent to sur- 
render our judgment and our knowledge at the 
command of a hierarchy, who have nothing to 
give us in exchange but the most palpable ab- 
surdities ? I With what face can a reverend 
Doctor of Nonsense dare to exact from my un- 
derstanding a humble acquiescence in a bundle 
of mysterious opinions, for which he is unable 
to offer me a single solid reason? ^ Is it then 
presumptuous to think oneself superior to a 
class of pretenders, v^hose systems are a mass 
of falsities, absurdities and inconsistencies, of 
which they contrive to make mankind at once 
the dupes and the victims ? i Can pride or vani- 
ty be, with justice, imputed to you. Madam, if 
you see reason to prefer the dictates of your 
own understanding to the authoritative decrees 
of Mrs. D , whose senseless malignity is ob- 
vious to all her acquaintance ? 

If Christian humility is a virtue at all, it can 
be one only in the cloister ; society can derive 
no sort of benefit from it ; it enervates the mind ; 
it benefits nobody but priests, who, under the 



162 LETTERS TO EUGENU* 

pretext of rendering men humble, seek, fn re- 
ality, only to degrade them, to stifle in their 
souk every spark of science and of courage^ 
that they may the more easily impose the yoke 
of faith, that is to say, their own yoke. Con- 
clude, then, with me, that the Christian virtues 
are chimerical, always useless, and sometimes 
pernicious to men, and attended with advantage 
to none but priests. Conclude that this reli- 
gion, with all the boasted beauty of its morali- 
ity, recommends to us a set of virtues, and en- 
joins a line of conduct at variance with good 
sense. Conclude, that in order to be moral and' 
virtuous, it is far from necessary to adopt the? 
unintelligible creed of the priests, or to pride^ 
ourselves upon the empty virtues they preach,^ 
and still less to annihilate all sense of dignity m 
ourselves, by a degrading subjection to the du- 
ties they require. Conclude, in short, that the 
friend of virtue is not, of necessity, the friend of 
priestcraft, and that a man may be adorned 
with every human perfection, without possess- 
ing one of the Christian virtues. 

All who examine this matter with a candid 
and intelligent eye, cannot fail to see that true - 
morality, that is to say, a morahty really ser- 
viceable to mankind, is absolutely incompatible 
with the Christian religion, or any other pro- 
fessed revelation. Whoever imagines himself 
the favoured object of the Creator's love, must 
look down with disdain upon his less fortunate 
fellow creatures, especially if he regards that 
Creator as partial, choleric, revengeful, and 
fickle, easily incensed against us, even by our 



Li^TTERS TO EUGENIA. 163 

involuntary thoughts, or our most innocent words 
and actions; such a man naturally conducts 
- himself with contempt and pride, with harshness 
and barbarity towards all others whom he may 
deem obnoxious to the resentment of his Heavenly 
King. Those men whose folly leads them to view 
the Deity in the light of a capricious, irritable, and 
unappeasable despot, can be nothing but gloomy 
and trembling slaves, ever eager to anticipate the 
vengeance of God upon all whose conduct or 
opinions they may conceive likely to provoke the 
celestial wrath. —As soon as the priests have suc- 
ceeded in reducing men to a state of stupidity 
gross enough to make them believe that their 
ghostly fathers are the faithful organs of the divine 
will,' they naturally commit every species of crime, 
which their spiritual teachers may please to tell 
them is calculated to pacify the anger of their 
offended God. Men, silly enough to accept a 
system of morals from guides thus hollow in 
reasoning, and thus discordant in opinion, must 
necessarily be unstable in their principles, and 
subject to every variation that the interest of their 
guides may suggest. In short, it is impossible to 
construct a solid morality, if we take for our 
foundation the attributes of a deity so unjust, so 
capricious^ and so changeable as the God of the 
Bible, whom we are commanded to imitate and 
adore. 

' Persevere, then, my dear Madam, in the 
practice of those virtues Avhich your own unso- 
])hi^ticated heart approves ; they^'will insure you 
a rich harvest of happiness in the present exist- 
ence ; they will insure you a rich return of grati- 
S 



164 LETTERS TO EUGEXIA. 

tucle, respect and love from all who enjoy their 
benign influence ; they will insure you the solid 
satisfaction of a well-founded self-esteem, and 
thus provide you with that unfaihng source of 
inward gratification which arises from the con- 
sciousness of having contributed to the welfare 
of the human race. 

I am, &c. 



LETTER IX. 

Having nlreadv shown you, IMadam, the feeble- 
ness of those succours which religion furnishes 
to morals, I shall novr pnjceed to examine whether 
it procure advantages in themselves reallv politic, 
and v^^hether itbetnie, as has so often been urged 
by the priests, that it is absolutely necessary to 
the existence of every government. 

AVere we disposed to shat our eyes, and deliver 
oinsels'es up to tlie language of our priests, we 
shoulcL believe that their opinions are necesary to 
the public tra^nquility, and the repose and secnnty 
of the State ; ibr those holy guides actuahy tell 
the cr^wulous mob, from the bloated pensioner to 
the l^«quey of his lowest tradesman, that princes 
couTd? not, without the aids of religion, govern 
their people, and exert themselves for their pros- 
perity and that of the empire. Nor is this all ; 
our spiritual pilots approach the throne, and gain- 
ing the ear of the sovereign, n'lake him adso 
btMieve that an established 'religion is absolutely 
no •' V to enable him to grasp the 'sceptre, and 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 165 

enjoy the grandeur and state of royalty ; that he 
must, therefore, conform to the church ; thatkiiigs 
in all ages have been her sons or protectors ; that 
as the people submit to be governed, so the mon- 
arch must submit to the yoke of the church ; that 
religion is the peace-maker in all political quarrels; 
• that the enemies of the priesthood are the enemiea;- 
of all power ; that they who sap the foundations 
of the altar, would over-throw the throne itself! 

Let us examine if these things are so ; for 
assertion is not proof, and the ipsidixcrunt of pnesls, 
like the proclamations of princes, are not laws for 
the world. No ; the former are the thunders of 
the pulpit, the latter, those of the throne. The 
mind of the honest citizen, like the iace of a 
granite rock, suffers the blast of boiii to blow 
against it, without losing its equilibrium. 

We have, then, only to opeii our ej^es and con- 
sult history, to be convinced of the falsity of these 
pretensions, and to appreciate the important 
services which the Christian priests have renderec/ 
to their sovereigns. Ever since the establish aieht . 
of Christianity we have seen, in all the countries 
in which this religion has gained ground, that two 
rival powers are perpetually at war one with the 
otlier. We find a government within the govon- 
ment. - That is to say, we find the Church, a body 
of priests, continually opposed to the sovereign 
power, and in virtue of their pretended divine 
mission and sacred office, 'pretending to give laws 
to all the sovereigns of the earth. 

^ Nor is this the case with the hiernrcl^v of 
Rome alone ; the bishops and priests of all seco- 
ders from that chui'ch have arrogated to them- 



166 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

selves the same authority. We find the clergy , 
puffed up and besotted with the titles they have 
given themselves, labouring to exact the obedi- 
ence due to the sovereign, pretending to chimer- 
ical and dangerous prerogatives, which none are 
suffered to question, w^ithout ' risking the dis- 
pleasure of the Almighty. And so w^ell have the 
priesthood managed this matter, that in many 
countries w^e actually see the people more inclined 
to lean to the authority of the clergy, than to 
that of the prince. It is not to the Fope alone, 
the Vicar of Jesus Christ, that this degraded 
submission of mind and liberty has been shown ; 
in Protestant countries, also, the clergy have 
contrived to make it be believed, that the law of 
the land is founded on their religion ; that since 
obedience is due to the law, it is much more so 
due to that in w^hich the law is founded. But it 
is very extraordinar}^, that in the parliament of 
Great Britain the legislators never consult the 
Scriptures, as to what laws they should enact, 
j Oh ! no ; circumstances, the position of the world, 
the march of intelligence against the iron hand of 
despotism, give occasion for the enactment of la ws; 
and the Bible is no more thought of in an assembl}^ 
of legislators, tha.n the " Arabian Night's Enter- 
tainments." So much, Madam, for the law of the 
land being founded on the religion of the clergy. 
But let us return to the pretensions of the priest- 
hood. These gentlemen pretend that the sanctity 
of their mission,— w^hich by the by is mere asser- 
tion, for there can be httle divine abo^t men mortal 
like ourselves, little sanctity about men who are 
eternally squabbling with the rest of the world 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 167 ^ 

for comfortable livings, tythes, and power, pre- 
rogative and rule,— these gentlemen pretend, how- 
ever, that the sanctity of their mission entitles 
them to dictate to monarchs themselves : and 
there are not wanting cases, on the page of history, 
wherein we see the clergy supported by their emi- 
saries and their credulous rabble of devotees, 
assuming the most ridiculous pretensions, mingl- 
ing in the affairs of State, and by the most artful 
methods contriving to get the most pernicious and 
dangerous projects executed against all those who 
are honest enough to suspect them of trickery ; 
or, if occasion serves them, to excite the prince to 
involve his unoffending subjects in quarrels vv^ith 
some neighbouring states ; for, while men's minds 
are distracted by the cry of "war," — " war,-" — 
" invasion," " invasion ;" when discord and alarm 
are spread within, and when nothing but trouble 
appears without, they who had formerly harm- 
lessly questioned the right of the priests to amass 
wealth and grind the poor for the gratification of 
their luxury and extravagance, will have leisure 
to fight the battles of domestic liberty ; and honest 
men who care little about the cry of " the church 
is in danger," will condescend to defend the throne 
at any risk, at all expences. This, however, is 
but one figure in the group which the entablature 
of priestcraft offers to the eye of the observer. 

^ Yet, Madam, such is part of the important ser- 
vices which religion has a thousand times pre- 
tended to render kings. - The people, Winded by 
• superstition, could hesitate but Uttle between God 
and the prince of the earth. The priests being 
the visible organs of an invisible monarchy have 



16S LETTERS TO EUGEXIA. 

gained immense credit over the human mind. 
The ignorance of the people has put them, as 
Avell as their princes, entirel}^ under the authority 
of the priesthood. And till a time shall arrive 
when the people shall put 'down the power of the 
priests, their kings must also be the common 
slaves of the crafty clerg}'. Do we not find, from 
histoiy, that great mirror of the universe, that 
nations have been constantly embroiled by the 
futile and malicious quarrels of the clergy ; that 
princes and people, who have ever attempted to 
oppose those overbearing tyrants of the human 
mind, have been denounced as opinionative here- 
tics, blasphemers, and enemies of God ; that the 
most bigoted nations, people and princes, who 
have voluntarily yielded to the iron despotism of 
the priesthood, have been pronounced the greatest 
favourites of heaven, and all others ripe for perdi- 
tion. The conclusion is here but one step — the 
destruction of these last was behoved by the 
former, not only meritorious, but necessary, and 
accordingly, having caught hold of this fiery link 
in the chain of discord, nation wars against nation, 
the ministers of peace are seen in the field of 
battle,* their fives are stained with the murder of 
mankind, their palaces are enriched with the 
spoils of the vanquished, and all is holy, just, and 
good. 

Such is the next figure in the base of the 
pvramidal group of the portraiture of priestcraft. 
The following is still more hedious ; — 

The continual attention which the princes 
of Europe have been forced to pay to the clergy 
has prevented them from occupying their 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 169 

^houghts about the welfare of the rest of their 
industrious subjects, who, in many instances the 
dupes of the priesthood, have unwittingly become 
opposed even to the good they have desired to 
procure by resistance. In like manner the heads 
of the people, their kings and governors, too weak 
to resist the torrent of opinions propagated by 
the clergy, and swallowed without examination 
by the people, have been forced to yield, to bow, 
nay, even to caress the priesthood, and to consent 
to grant it all its demands. Whenever they have 
wished to resist the encroachments of the clergy, 
they have encountered concealed snares or open 
opposition, as the holy power was either too weak 
to -fact in the face of day, or strong enough to 
contend in the sunshine. When princes have 
wished to be listened to by the clergy, these last 
have invariably contrived to make them cowardly, 
and to sacrifice the happiness and respect of their 
people. We have frequently seen the hands of 
parricides and rebels, assassins and fanatics armed 
in the sacerdotal worship, to destroy princes 
whom |,he clergy have thought unworthy to reign, 
' because, forsooth, those princes have desired to 
make all their subjects happy, the people as well 
as the priests. France lost two monarchs by the 
machinations of the clergy. There the priests, 
under the pretext of avenging God, have murdered 
kings. This is one way of preserving the yoke 
on the necks of the multitude. In a word Madam, 
in all countries, we see that the ministers of religion 
have exercised at all times, the most frightful 
licence to establish and perpetuate their power. 
We find empires torn by their feuds, thrones over 



170 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

turned by their machinations ; princes immolated 
to their power and revenge ; subjects animated to 
revoh against the prince that ought to give them 
more happiness than they actually enjoyed ; and 
when we take the retrospect of these, we find 
that the ambition, the cupidity, and vanity of the 
clergy have been the true causes and motives of 
all these outrages on the peace of the universe. 
And it is thus that their religion has so often pro- 
duced anarchy, and overturned the very empires 
they pretended to support by its influence. 

Thus we have contemplated another horrible 
demon, in the tablature of priesthood. In the 
remaining sketch of the ' monsters that compose 
the group, we will attend to the countenance and 
the colouring of the drapery; by which means 
the reader will recognize the figures at his leisure 
one by one. 

i That sovereigns have not enjoyed peace, even 
when, with a false humility, devoted to priests, 
they have submitted to their caprices, become 
enslaved to their opinions, and allowed them to 
govern in place of themselves, we will see in the 
sequel ! For, whenever the sovereign power has 
become subordinate to the sacerdotal, the prince 
was only the first servant of the church. ; She has 
used him merely as a tool to enrich her coffers, to 
execute her secret, sanguinary decrees, and thus 
to bathe . his hands in the innocent blood of his 
unoffending subjects, whom the priesthood had 
marked out for their vengeance, and concealed 
passions ! ' History attests that, in place of labour- 
ing for the happiness of the people, the sovreign 
has often been compelled to torment, to persecute, 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. Itl 

to immolate the most worthy citizens : — ; And all 
this to keep on terms with an overbearing, proud, 
revengeful, ambitious herd of priests ! And all 
this to gratify the revenge of some one man in a 
million ; some pampered hypocrite, who arrogated 
to himself the most hellish projects under the 
sanction of his office. Nor is it in one religious 
persuasion this is alone the case ; in a greater or 
less degree, openly or secretly ; by the sv/ord or 
the secular power ; ' by the perversion of laws 
and the point of the bayonet, we find it true in 
all persuasions. 

How^ little soever you are disposed to reflect, 
you will be convinced. Madam, that I do not ex- 
aggerate these things. Recent examples prove 
to you that even in this age, nations are distracted 
by the intrigues of priests ; you have a hundred 
times sighed at the sight of the sad folies which 
puerile questions have produced amongst us. 
You have shuddered at the fiightful consequences 
which have resulted from the unreasonable squab- 
bles of the clergy. You have trembled w^ith all 
good citizens ^t the sight of the tragical effects, 
w^hich have been brought about by the furious 
wickedness of a fanatic,' who showed in his char- 
acter every thing that was not sacred. . In fine you 
have seen the sovereign authority compelled to 
struggle incessantly against rebeUious subjects, 
who pretend that their conscience, or the interests 
of religion have obliged them to resist opinions the 
most agreeable to common sense, and the most 
equitable. 

Our priests more religious and less brilliant than 
we have witnessed them in former times, are yet 



172 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the actors of scenes more terrible than heathenism 
boasts. They have gloried in civil wars, the over- 
throw of treaties, the shedding in the very capitol 
the blood of the innocent ; two monarch s succes- 
sively immolated to the fury of the clergj^, who 
kindle in all parts the fire of sedition. ' In France 
we have seen the Catholic church banish the 
industrious Protestants ;• in England we see the 
furious Protestant wage war against the opinions 
of those who differ from him, and who cannot 
believe that three Gods are but one ; and that 
one God only is nevertheless three distinct divin- 
ities. 

In all Europe we find the same. In Spain 
religion is the tool with which the march of 
opinion is arrested ; and whoever is not a fanatic 
is an object of pubhc vengeance. In Germany 
two great religious factions distract princes and 
people; the CathoUcs are taught from their cradles 
to hate the Protestants ; and the Protestants to 
despise the Cathohcs as idolaters. Each faction 
is leagued agahist the other, with some neighbour- 
ing faction of a similar persuasion. But all are 
alike the servile creatures of artful priests and cler- 
gymen. 

Thus you see, Madam, the signal advantages 
which the priesthood bring to nations. But the 
clergy forget not to tell us that all those terrible 
effects which I have detailed, are to be traced to 
the passions of mankind, and not to the doctrines 
of the Christian religion, which always recom- 
mends charity, concord, and peace. Yet if we 
reflect on the principles of this religion, we shall 
perceive that they are incompatible with the "fine 



mi 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 173 

maxims which were practiced by the Christian 
teachers, at a time when they had not the 
power, and we may believe also the inclination 
to persecute their enemies, and ensanguine their 
hands in the blood of their countrymen. Never- 
theless we find that the adorers of a jealous God, 
vindictive and sanguinary, as is obviously the 
character of the God of the Jews and Christians, 
could not evince in their conduct moderation, 
tranquillity, and humanity. The adorers of a 
God who takes offence at the opinions of his weak 
creatures, who reprobates, and glories in the 
extermination of all who do not worship him in a 
particular way, for the which, by the by, he gives 
them neither the means nor the inclination, must 
necessarilly be intolerant persecutors. The ado- 
rers of a God who has not thought fit to illuminate 
with an equal portion of light the minds of all 
his creatures, who reveals his favour, and bestows 
his kindness on a few only of those creatures, who 
leaves the remainder in blindness and uncertainty, 
to follow their passions, or adopt opinions against 
which the favoured wage war, must of necessity 
be eternally at odds with the rest of the world, 
canting about their oracles and mysteries, super- 
natural precepts, invented purely to torment the 
human mind, to enthral it, and leave man answer- 
able for what he could not obey, and punishable 
for what he was restrained from performing. 
We need not then be astonished, if, since the 
origin of Christianity, our priests have never 
been without disputes. It appears from their 
conduct, and from their conduct we must judge 
of their religion, for it is very natural to suppose 



174 LETTERS to EUGENIA. 

iliat the priests of every religion are fashioned 
according to the tenets of that religion, else are 
they not its priests, but a herd of impostors, the 
annihilation of ^Yhose pretensions must always be 
the duty of the state they are in ; that true priests 
and true religion may prosper, it appears from 
their conduct, I say, that God sent his Son upon 
earth solely to cast among mankind the apple of 
discord. The ministers of a church founded by 
Christ himself, who promised to send them his 
Holy Spirit to lead them into all the truth, have 
never been in unison with their dogmas. We 
have seen this infallible church for whole ages_ 
enveloped in errour. '*At least its modern sece- 
ders say so. j And if doctors differ who shall 
agree ? You know. Madam, that in the fourth 
century by the acknowledgement of the priests 
themselves, the great body of the church followed 
the opinions of the Arians, who disavowed even 
the divinity of Jesus Christ. The spirit of God 
must then have abandoned his church, else <: w^hy 
did its ministers fall into this errour, and dispute 
afterwards about so fundamental a dogma of the 
christian religion ? 

Notwithstanding these continual quarrels, the 
church arrogates to itself the right of fixing the 
faith of the true believers, and in this it pretends to 
infallibility ; and if the protestant parsons have 
renounced the lofty and ridiculous pretentions of 
their catholic brethren, they are not less certain 
in the infallibility of their decisions ; 'for they 
talk with the authority of oracles, and send to hell 
and damnation all who do not yield submission to 
their dogmas. Thus on both sides of the cross 



LETT13RS TO EUGENIA. 175 

we see division and discord ; each party is ortho- 
dox in his own e3^es, and rails against the other 
as deceivers ; and too frequently violence settles 
their disputes, and with them might is rights as 
much as with the conqueror. The orthodox are 
those among whom the prince ranks ; the heretics 
are those who are not of the established sect. 
Hindoos, Miissulmen, Christians, all are right in 
their own eyes ; l)ut let us examine their preten- 
sions. 

T According to the Christians, there is no salva- 
tion, no getting up to heaven, no escaping hell, — 
a place no one knows where situate, whether in 
the sun or the nucleus of a comet— but by Christ. 
Now the Hindoos believe not in Christ but in 
Vishnou, a God of their own making, therefore 
the Hindoos cannot get to heaven. And the 
Mussulmans believe in Mahomet ; but Mahomet 
was an impostor according to the Christians ; 
therefore the Mussulmans cannot ofet to heaven. 
According to the Protestants, idolaters cannot get 
to heaven ; but according to the same Protestants, 
the Roman Catholics worship images ; therefore 
the poor Catholics cannot get to heaven, for no 
idola.tor shall enter that blest abode. According 
to the Cathohcs, there is no salvation but within 
the pale of their church, at the head of which 
his Holiness of Rome presides, as vicar of Jesus 
Christ upon earth; therefore the Protestants being 
without the pale of the Church of Rome, must 
all be damned. According to the Jews, Christians 
are impostors ; and the impostor and hislbllowers 
must both perish ; therefore both sects of Clnist- 
iaiis, Catiiolics and Protestants, must go headlong 



176 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

to the devil. And for the same reason the Mussul- 
mans may go to the devil also. ^ In what rehgion 
then is salvation to be found ? 

Yet although we have considered the ])riests as 
the authors of the various religions they as vari- 
ously support, we shall find, that kings and empe- 
rors have been the chief, the final resort of the 
priests for fixing the faith of the Christians ; and 
that one stroke of the sword has done more to 
establish it than all the ratiocinations of the clergy; 
yet by this means opinions pleasing to the divinity 
are propagated. So Mahomet established the 
Coran ; so the Roman Emperors after Constantine 
made whole nations of the Germans Christians, 
and baptized them by thousands in the w^aters of 
tlie Danube. ; The true faith is, then, that which 
has always princes as its adherents ; the faithful 
are always those who are employed to exterminate 
their enemies ; the weak, not the powerful, are 
the enemies of God ! ; Horrible ! ; most horrible ! 
In a word, the j)7'mcesoi the earth, not the priests 
of this or that religion, are infallible; they are those 
whom we must rega rd as the true founders of the 
faith over which tliey preside ; they are those who, 
in all ages and in all countries, have fixed the faith 
that must be obeyed ; they are those who have 
invariably fixed the religion of their subjects. 

Ever since Christianity has been adopted by 
some nations, i have w^e not seen that religion has 
almost entirely occupied the altention of sove-' 
reigns ?'For the princes, Minded by superstition, 
have befn wholly * devoted to "the priests, and 
have beheved that prudence required, as the 
surest means for supporting their own power, - 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 177 

that they also should submit themselves to the 
clergy, who seemed to be the real leaders and 
guides of the people, who saw nothing more 
divine than the ministers of a God, of whom all 
their ideas resemble the shadows of evening, 
growing darker, and rendering them more gloomy 
as the twihght of time rapidly declines. In 
either case the health of the body politic has never 
been consulted ; ^ it was cowardly sacrificed to the 
interests of the court, or the vanitv and luxury of. 
the priests. It is by a continuation of super- 
stition on the part of the princes, that w^e behold * 
. the church so richW endowed in times of igno- • 
rrsQce ; when men believed they would enrich 
Deity,' by putting all their w^ealth into the hands 
of the priests of a good God the declared enemy 
of riches. * Savage warriors, destitute of the 
manners of men, flattered themselves that they 
could expiPcte all their sins by founding monasteries 
and oivino immense wealth to a set of. men who 
had made vows of poverty. It was believed tha.t 
they w^oulvd merit from the all-powerful a great 
advantage b}^ recompensing laziness, which, in^ 
the priests, was regarded as a great good, and 
that the blessings procured by their prayers would 
be in pro])ortion to the continua.1 and pressing 
demands their poverty made on the wealthy., 

^'It is thus that by the superstition of princes, the 
great miCn of ihe earth., and the people also, the 
clergy have become opulent and powerful ; that 
monachism was honoured, and citizens the most 
useless, th(*. least instructed, but withal the most 
dangeuDus, were .very veil recompensed and 
became in time the most considei'abie portion of 



i73 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the community, surrounded by privileges and 
immunities, eiijoying independence, power, and 
licence denied to all other ranks and classes ; it 
was thus that the imprudent devotion of sovereigns 
put the priests in a condition to resist even those 
sovereigns themselves, to make laws independent 
of their authority, and trouble their governments 
with impunity. 

The clerg}^ arriving at this point of power and 
grandeur, became, redoubtable to monarchs 
themselves, who were frequently forced to submit 
to the yoke imposed on them by the tiaughty 
priesthood. When the sovereigns yielded, they 
were the veriest slaves of the priests, the instru- 
ments of their passions, the vile adorers of their 
power. - When they refused to yield, the priests 
unnoved and embarrassed them by the crudest 
stratagems ; ' hurled against them the anathemas 
of the church, desolved the people from their 
obedience, and set subjects and princes in array, 
declaring that whoever obe3^ed the church w^ere 
the favorites of heaven, and those who refused the 
children of the devil. 'Nor could the prince in 
this case keep himself on his throne 'but by con- 
senting at length to obey the priests. ' *And there 
have been times when, in Europe, princes could 
enjo}^ no repose for themselves or for their peo- 
ple, unless they unequivocally conceded every 
point to the caprice of tlie clergy. For in these 
times of ignorance, civil broils were as favourable 
to the cause of the clergy, as dev^otion, and a 
weak and poor prince, surrounded by a wretched 
people, was entirely at the mercy of the priest- 
hood, who would at a.nv moment thev chose 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 179 

annihilate his power, excite his people against 
him, and hurl him from the height of royalty into 
the lowest abyss of misery. 

In general, Madam, we find that in countries 
where religion has gained dominion, the sovereign 
- is necessarily dependant on the clergy, and en- 
joys power in proportion as he obeys them, for 
the instant he displeases them, his power van- 
ishes like the dew of morning ; and the priests, 
with the people, and the cross for their banner, 
hold the balance to weigh the legitimacy of every 
prince. 

But we no where find, except in the creeds 
which the priests have formed for themselves, 
' that the laziness, the ignorance, and unreasonable 
demands of the priesthood should be supported ; 
and on examination we discover that perpetual 
trickery and conjuration are at work among the 
priests to ' prevent the people from prying into 
the falsehood and chicanery of these organs of the 
divinity. 

^j Do you not, then, conclude with me, that the 
interests of the sovereign accord not with the 
ministers of the Christian religion, who have, in 
all ages, been the most troublesome of the people 
among whom they have sprung up, the most re- 
bellious, the most difficult to reduce toobedience, 
and w4iose satellites are too often the declared 
enemies of the person of the king ? And it is 
thus that Christianity is the firmest support of the 
throne ; that it regards' kings as the express ima- 
ges of the divinity ; that it addresses a worm of 
the dust with the title of the Mightiest and the 
Higlicst. 

T 



ISO LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 

The maxims of the clergy are, however, best 
calculated to lull kings on the couch of slumber y 
they are calculated to flatter those on whom the 
clergy can. rety, and who will serve their ambi- 
tion ; aiid their flatterers can soon change their 
tone, when the princes have the temerit}^ to ques- 
-lion the pernicious tendency of priestljMnfkience. 
vThen the prince is a heretic; his destruction is 
laudable ; heaven rejoices in his overthrown ;And 
ail this is the religion of the Bible ! 

You know, Madam, that tlicse odious maxims 
have been a thousand times enforced by tlie 
priestSj who, when the}' have found themselves 
puzzled, have invariably replied, that thc^ so^er- 
. ,eign cannot encroach upon the authority ot" the 
phurch, 'since it is better to obey God than man. 
-4- • The priests are devoted to the princes, ^vhen 
<-the princes are blindly led by the priests. These 
Last preach arrogantly that tlie ibrmer ought to 
be exterminated, when thcy^ reiuse to obey the 
charch, tiiat is to say; the priests ; ycl how ter- 
lible soever may' be these maxims, how danger- 
ous, soever their practice to the security of the 
sovereign, and the tranquiUty of the stale, they 
are the immediate consequences di'a.wn from. Ju- 
daism and Christianit^n We find in the Old 
Testament that the rc^gieide is applauded; that 
treason and rebeUion ru'e approved. ^'^Vhy tbica 
should vve suppose that God is offended with the 
thoughts of his Cicaiures, that heretics ai'e, dis- 
pleasing to him ? It is very ..natural to concluvle, 
that if a sovcieign be a heretic or impious, tbiit 
is to say, if he ' disobeys the elergv, or opj^oses 
their views of a<;2grandizement, and is eveniuaJiy 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 181 

successful in carrying his projects as David of 
old, or Henry VIII.. in modern times, then the 
clergy conform to the king, ' who is now no 
long'er a heretic, might being right, incapacity 
errour, but the head of the church legitimately 
king, and the church and he am infallible ; the 
one can do no WTong ; a,nd whoever does not 
conform to the other is incapable of enjoying the 
rights and privileges of a citizen. 

You perceive then, Madam, that such conduct, 
though talked of by the priests, as founded on the 
principles of their religion, their percepts are 
very much opposed to the surety of sovereigns, 
.and the repose of nations. However, following 
these maxims, the life of the prince too often 
depends on the caprice of the priesthood, who 
may declare him a heretic, as has been done by 
the Pope in many instances, even to excommu- 
nication. -'And if the priesthood be flatterers of 
kinos, thev have been so to estabhsh between 
themselves and those sovereigns a svstem of 
absolute povv^er, which might secure to them an 
empire not only over the persons, but the- con- 
sciences of the people. "^'"Whoever resists them is 
a rebel or a seditious person, or he is persecuted 
as a blasphemer. 

On the other hand, the obedience of the clergy 
to their prince is only conditional. -r^Thev will 
submit to him, they will* flatter his whims, and 
strengthen his power, provided he submit to their 
orders, and do not traverse their projects, nor 
encroach on ilieir hvings, nor change uuj of their 
dogmas ; but so soon as he attempts to contra- 
vene their sentiments,* there is an open .war, in 



182 LE'rTERS TO EUGENIA. 

which the victor is infallibly right, and the van- 
quished is necessarily wrong. 

These considerations prove how dangerous 
are the priesthood, since the end they purpose by 
all their projects, is dominion over the mind of 
mankind, and by subjugating it, to enslave their 
persons, and render them the creatures of despo- 
tism and tyranny. And we shall find, upon 
examination, that, with one or two exceptions, 
the pious have been the enemies of the progress 
of science, and the developenient of the human 
understanding; 'for by brutalizing mankind, they 
have invariably strove to bind them to their yoke. 
' Their avarice, their thirst of power and wealth, 
have led them to plunge their fellow-citizens in 
ignorance, in misery, and unhappiness. - They 
discourage the cultivation of the earth by their 
system of tythes, their extortions, and their secret 
projects; they annihilate activity, talents, and 
industry ; their pride is to reign on the ruin of the 
rest of their species. - The finest countries in 
Europe have, when blindly submissive to the 
priests, ' been the worst cultivated, the thinnest 
peopled, and the most wretched. The Inqiiisi^ 
tion in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, has only 
tended to irhpoverish those countries to debase ^ 
the mind, and render their subjects the veriest 
slaves of superstition. And in countries where 
we see heaven showering down abundance, the 
people are poor and famished, while the priests 
and monks are opulent and bloated. Their kings 
are without power and without glory ; their 
subjects languish in indigence and wretched- 
ness. 



LEtTEIlS TO EXraENlAb 183 

The priests boast of the utility of their office. 
Independently of their prayers from which the 
world has for so many ages derived neither 
instruction nor peace, prosperity nor happiness ; 
their pretensions to teach the rising generations 
are often frivolous, and sometimes arrogant, since 
we have found others equally well calculated to 
the discharge of those functions, who have been 
good citizens, that have not drawn from the pock- 
ets of their neighbours the tenth of their earnings. 
Thus, in what light soever we view them, the 
pretensions of the priests are reduced to a non- 
entity, compared to the disservice they render 
the community by their exactions and dissolute 
lives. 

If, then, the services of the clergy were proper- 
ly appreciated, in place of immense revenues 
and princely power, their salaries would be on 
a par with the fees of empyrics, and their nos- 
trums as highly valued. But I will only refer 
you to my former letters, in proof of this, and also 
in confirmation of their inutility in many con- 
cerns, in which they have contrived to push 
themselves, to the great detriment of society. — 
♦ They are very sensible, that as the human mind 
expands and frees itself from the prejudices of 
early eduction, their authority dwindles into 
nothingness. Their endeavour, then, is to mis- 
lead princes, by false charges against those who 
befriend mankind. Nevertheless, princes are 
actually interested in the progress of reason, and 
when they attempt to limit its range, they only 
add to the means by which it always gains 
ground, and the rnore victims they immolate tg 



184 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the rage of the clergy, they erect the more steps 
on the portico of truth. But every state has its 
morning twiUght of knowledge, its noon-day of 
science, and its evening of ignorance. The priests 
know which period suits them best, and that 
they are busiest in, like owls in the absence of 
the sun from a particular region of the earth. 

You perceive, then, that in banishing philoso- 
phy, and repressing intellection, a government 
sacrifices the dearest interests of the people to a 
seditious ' priesthood, for there is not a single 
priest on earth who does not suppose himself 
equal to a king-— who does not avow as high pre- 
tensions, and rule his flock with a despotism 
equal to tliat practised in Algiers. 

' The clergy are essentially the most wicked 
men of the state, and it requires something equal ' 
to a miracle to find one of them otherwise. They 
are the bantlings of minds in their dotage. * Their 
pulpits are the anvils^ whereon all that is destruc- 
tive of the progress of intellect is hammered 
forth. Their pretended mission makes them 
redoubtable ; the kindnesses of princes and peo- 
ple they conceive to be duties due to them as the 
messengers of heaven. Nor have I, in this por- 
traiture, departed from the original ; for during a 
long succession of ages, the clergy have contrived 
to sacrifice both princes and people to their ava- ' 
rice and passions. Else ^ how happens it that they 
should become so rich, that princes should hon- 
our them with tlieir confidence, and regard them 
as the props of their power, and the safeguards of 
their states ? The chief aim of the priesthood is 
to cajole kings whom they may hold in slavery 
with the people. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 185 

' Against all those who meddle with theological 
questions, the priests complain bitterly, and 
encourage their princes to side with them, and 
persecute those who do not submit; proscribe 
with fury all the friends of reason, anS stifle 
liberal opinions which benefit society. For those 
very priests who cry " sacrilege" when the princes 
meddle with their dogmas, or more properly their 
livings, are indignant against the same princes, 
when they refuse to destroy their enemies, or 
treat them as impious, when they stir nol in reli- 
gious broils. 

' We have seen some bend their power to the 
bettering of their people, and the dissemination 
of knowledge among them ; 'but we have seen 
the clergy oppose those princes, by a zeal that 
could result fi^om nothing but their ' self-interest, 
which is always increased in proportion as they 
• propagate their mystical jargon, and secure belie- 
vers to their fanatical practices. 
- ^* What do we behold useful to society in the 
monuments of piety furnished by the lives of the 
priests ? We find the most fiantastical notions 
maintained of a lazy monastic life ; temples and 
palaces for the heads of the church, enriched by 
the hard-earned labours of the poor ; ^for since 
the establishment of Christianity, the sacerdotal 
power has been raised on the ruin of nations, and 
the annihilation of every prince who dared to 
oppose it. A jealous rehgion is exclusively cal- 
culated to cramp the minds of men, and keep 
them in terrour and suspense. And we see in all 
ages that the interests of the clergy are incompa* 
tible w^ith those of the people. ^In every state, 



18G I/ETTERS TO EtTGENlA. 

therefore, in which the interests of one class of 
the con>munity is at variance with those of other 
classes, disorder, arising from discontent and 
misery from indifference, must be the consequen- 
ces. This is also the case where the blind lead 
the blind* 

I am, &c. 



LETTER X. 

I DARE flatter myself, Madam, that I have 
clearly demonstrated to you, that the Christian 
religion, far from being the support of sovereign 
authority, is its greatest enemy ; and of having 
plainly convinced you, that its ministers are, by 
the very nature of their functions, the rivals of 
kings, and adversaries the most to be feared by 
all who value or exercise temporal power. In a 
word, I think I have persuaded you, that society 
could better dispense with the services of the 
priesthood, than it could with the purse of so- 
ciety ; and that of the two classes, the priests are 
less beneficial to the state than the labouring 
poor. 

Let us now examine the advantages which this 
religion procures to individuals, who are most 
strongly convinced of its pretended truths, and 
who conform the most rigidly to its precepts. 
Let us see if it is calculated to render its disci- 
ples more content, more happy, and more virtu- 
ous than they would he without the burden of 
its ministers^ 



tfiTTERS "to EtiaBNIA. lS7 

In order to decide this question, we have only 
to look around us, and consider the effects which 
this religion produces in minds truly penetrated 
with its pretended truths. We usually find in all 
those who profess it the most sincerely, and who 
practise it the most exactly, chagrin and melan- 
choly, which announce plainly, that they derive 
no internal peace from that, about which they 
talk incessantly ; and we have found some of 
them confess, that while they are obliged to ap- 
pear to the world as contented and happy, they 
are internally the victims of a secret inquietude. 

Whoever shall meditate seriously on the God 
of the Old Testament, will be convinced how 
much license the priests and their followers have, 
from the despotic and tyrannical character of 
their Deity, to be overbearing in their exteriour, and 
the slaves of fear within. True, the doctrine of 
predestination is a panacea for all crimes, but 
then ; what a number of human beings it sends 
to the devil, merely because they did not do what 
they could not do ! Even the worker of good 
v/orks has no hope from them, unless he can per- 
suade himself that he is one of the elect ; while 
the true believer in this doctrine cannot fail to 
get into heaven, be his sins what they may. 

There is little occasion, however, Madam, to 
insist on this topic with you ; yet I may glance 
at the continual melange of devotion and pleas- 
ure, of piety and dissipation, of momentary fer- 
vour and continued derangement, ' which the 
priests and their devotees offer to the world. If 
priests fast, it is from pride and ambition ; their 
principles are not better, nor are their passions 



18S LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

weaker than those of other men. Their severi- 
ties are stoicism blended occasionally with fanat- 
icism; for the}^ are enemies' to the refined pleas- 
ures of mind, and their unsociability proves them 
to be the victims of chagrin. Their jealousy, in 
fact, compels them to interdict harmless pastimes, 
which both God and Nature allow. 

May we not, then, conclude, that the religion - 
of these priests is not designed for beings who 
have to fulfil the duties of society ; its precepts 
are often impracticable ; they check activity, and 
render the complacent frequently morose and 
disagreeable. For a Christian is forced to ab- 
stract his maxims or himself from them, if he 
w^ould live on a footing wiih other men. Interest 
and emulation . bid him set the dogmas of his 
priest aside; and he does so, but is fiuTiished 
with a panacea in the event of offending God, a 
salvo for the sins of omission and commission. — 
In a word, a good Christian is a man of another, 
not of this world. 

Thus we see, that Christians, to belong to the 
great family of mankind, are every moment com- 
pelled to depart from their supernatural specula- 
tions. Tlieir passions necessitate them to com- 
promise their tenets, which have not force to ex- 
tirpate the springs of human nature, as various 
as the circumstances and objects that solicit ob- 
servation, and claim a share in the round of pas- 
time man has pleasure in enjoying. 

1 believe. Madam, that you will now be con- 
vinced that the true friends of the human kind 
and of princes are not the friends of the priest- 
hood. J Bat what axe the motives which deter- 



LETTERS TO ET^GENlA. 189 

mine a man to incredulity? Yet is incredulity 
not that which pretends to domineer over the 
conscience ; it furnishes no pretexts for violating 
the laws of the understanding ; it teaches none 
to hate and despise men on account of their 
opinions, at least not of opinions which carry to 
evil tendency in their practice. The motives, 
then, for incredulity, as in my case, are infinite, 
and I do not know that I am either more just or 
more depraved than other men, but I am confi- 
dent I entertain no persecuting spirit. 

The incredulous who reflect, perceive, that 
without abandoning society, they have pressing 
and real motives which invite them to be honest 
men and good citizens ;- they understand that 
reciprocal interest which is the first law of 
nature ; they strive to render themselves agreea- 
ble to alt,' from a principle of justice, and they 
injure none from a conviction of the utility of 
personal virtue;* they obey the law^s, because 
good laws are for the protection of the good, 
and the chastisement of the bad. They have a 
perfect idea of the beauty of decency, and the 
propriety of good order ; ihey devise to merit the 
appellation of their fellow-citizens ; they fear to 
incur their disapprobation or censure. And such 
are some of the motives which actuate the 
incredulous, on which the conduct of tlie free- 
thinker is grounded. 

But you may rejoin, ** jAnd are all the incred- 
ulous such as you have pourtrayed f'' The par- 
tizans of the Christians have, I believe, Ibund as 
little to censure in the conduct of the incredulous, 
as in their own companions in fanaticism. But 



190 LETTERS TO Ht'GEXlA. 

tl)e incredulous do not appeal to supernatural aid 
Jiiid divine Instruction for the propriety of their 
conduct ; the credulous do so appeal, and there 
is no question that, if the}^ evinced in their lives 
the perfection they boast as attainable by their 
religion, the whole world would follow tliem in 
devotion. A happy tetnperannent, an honest 
education, the desire to live peaceably, the fear 
of incurring blame, the habitude of doing always 
good, and thinking well of mankind, furnish mo- 
tives for the incredulous to abstain from vice, and 
practise virt'ie. Besides, they have an inex- 
haustible fund of motives which religion does not 
furnish to the superstitious, who, when they have 
crimes to expiate, reconcile themselves to God, 
and set their conscience at rest. The incredulous 
man, who does wrong, cannot reconcile himself 
to society, nor with his own mind; and if he has 
no hope of recompense in another life, but from 
the good he does in this, he must of necessity 
practise virtue and probity. 

It appears obvious, that all men who consult 
their reason, ought to be more reasonable than 
those who consult onW their imagination ; that 
those who consult well tlieir own nature, ought to 
have more correct ideas of good and evil, of jus- 
tice and injustice, of honesty and dishonesty, than 
those who consult a vague theolog}^ and incom- 
prehensible mysteries. The incredulous do the 
former ; the credulous, I mean the Christians, do 
the latter; and I shall therefore conclude this 
letter b}' requesting you will use your own judg- 
ment in examining on which class your happiness 
bids you arrange yourself. I am, &c. 



LETTERS TO EtJGEXIA. I9l 



LETTER XL 



By this time, Madam, you will have reflected 
on what I had the honour to address to you ; and 
perceived how impossible it is to found a certain 
and invariable morality on a religion enthusiastic, 
ambiguous, mysterious, aud contradictory, and 
which never agreed with itself. You know that 
the God who appears to have taken pleasure in 
rendering himself unintelligible, that the God who 
isjjjpartial and changeable, that the God whose 
precepts are at variance one with another, can 
never serve as the base on which to rear a mor- 
ality that shall become practicable among the 
inhabitants of the earth. In short, jhow can we 
found justice and goodness on attributes that are 
unjust and evil ; yet attributes of a Being who 
tempts man, whom he created, for the purpose of 
punishing him when tempted ? ^ How can we 
know when w^e do the will of a God, who has 
said. Thou shah not kill, and who yet allows his 
people to exterminate whole nations ? ^ What 
idea can we form of the morality of that God, 
who declares himself pleased with the sanguin- 
ary conduct of Moses, of the rebel, the assassin, 
the adulterer David. ^Is it impossible to found 
the holy duties of liumanity on a God, whose 
favourites have been inhuman persecutors and 
cruel monsters ^ ^ How can we deduce our 
duties from the lessons of the priests of a God of 
pca-.e, who, nevertheless, breathes only sedition, 



192 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

vengeance, and carnage ? ^ ^How can we take as 
models for our conduct saints^ who were useless 
enthusiasts, or turbulent fanatics, or seditious 
apostates ; who, under the pretext of defending the 
cause of God, have stirred up the greatest ravages 
on the earth ? '^ What wholesome morality can we 
reap from the adoption of impracticable virtues, 
from their being supernatural, which are visibly 
useless to ourselves, to those among whom we 
live, and in their consequences often dangerous ? 
^Hovv can we take as guides in. our conduct 
priests, whose lessons are a tissue of unintelligible 
opinions (for all rdi(yioii is but ojAuioji), puerile 
and frivolous practices, which these gentlemen 
prefer to real virtues ? In fine, ^how can we be 
taught the truth, conducted^ in an unerring path, 
by men of a changeable morality, calculated upon 
and actuated by their present interests, and who 
although tliey pretend to preach good-will to 
men, humanity, and peace, have, as their text- 
book, a volume stained with the recordcS of injus- 
tice, inhumanity, sedition, and perfidy^ 

You know, Madam, that it is impossible to 
found moralitj^ on notions that are so unfixed and 
so contrarv to all our natural ideas of virtue. By 
virtue we ouO;ht to understand the habitual dispo- 
sitions to do whatever will procure us the hap- 
piness of ourselves and our species. By virtue, 
religion understands only that which may contri- 
bute to rendt^r us favourable to a hidden God, 
who attaches his favour to practices and opin- 
ions that are too often hurtful to ourselves, and 
little beneficial to others. The morality of the 
Chiistians is a mvstic moralitv, v/nich resembles 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 193 

the dogmas of their religion ; it is obscure, unin- 
telligible, uncertaih, and subject to the interpreta- 
tion of frail creatures. This morality is never 
fixed, .because it is subordinate to a religion which 
varies = incessantly • its ""principles, and which is 
regukited according to the pleasure of a despotic 
divinity, and, more especially, according to the 
pleasureof priests whose interests are changing 
daily, whose caprices are. as variai)le as the hours 
of their existence, and who are, consequently, not 
always in agreement with one another. 

The writings which are th<^ sources whence 
the Christians have ch'awn their morcility, are not 
only an a-byss of obscurity, but demand contin- 
ual explications from their masters^ the priests, • 
wdio, in explaining, make them still more obscure^ 
still more contradictory. 11" these oracles of hea- 
ven prescribe to us in one place the viitues truly 
useful, in another pari they approve, or prescribe, 
actions entirely opposed to all the ideas that we 
have of virtue. The same God who orders us to 
be good, equitable, and beneficent, who forbids 
the revenging of injuries, who declares himself to 
be the God of clemency and of goodness-J-shows 
himself to be as impla,cable in his rage, announ- 
ces himself as bringing the sivoi'd, ami not peace : 
tells us that he is come to set mankind at vaji- 
ance ; and linally, in order to revenge his wrongs, 
orders rapine, treason, usurpation and carnage. 
In a word, it is impossible to find in the scrip- 
tures any certain principles, or sure rubs of mor- 
ality. You there see in one part a small number 
of precepts useful and intelligible, anci in another 
part mrtxims the most extravagant and the most 



194 LETTERS t6 KUGEXIA. 

destructive to the good and happiness of all soci- 
ety. 

It is in punctuality to fulfil the superstitious and 
frivolous duties, that the morality of the Jews in 
the Old Testament writings is chiefly conspicu* 
ous ; legal observances, rites, ceremonies, are all 
that occupied the people of Israel. In recom- 
pense for their scrupulous exactness to fulfil these 
duties, they were permitted to commit the most 
frightful of crimes. The virtues recommended 
by the Son of God, in the New Testament, are 
not in reality, the same as those which God the 
Father had made observable in the former case. 
• The New Testament contradicts the Old. It 
announces that God is not pacified by sacrifices, 
nor by offerings, nor by frivolous rites. It sub- 
stitutes in place of these, supernatural virtues, of 
which I believe I have sufficiently proved the 
inutility, the impossibility, and the incompatibility 
with the well-being of man living in society. * The 
Sonof God^ by the writers of the New Testament, 
is set at variance with himself; for he destroys 
in one place what he establishes in another ; and 
moreover, the priests have appropriated to them- 
selves all the principles of his mission. \ They 
are in unison only with God when the precepts 
of the Deity accord with their present interest. 
^'Is it their interest to persecute ? They find that 
God ordains persecution. Are they themselves 
persecuted? They find that this pacific God 
forbids persecution, and views with abhorrence 
the persecution of his servants. ^Do they find 
that superstitious practices are lucrative to them- 
selves? Notwithstanding the aversion of Jesus 



tETTERS TO EUGENIA. 195 

Christ from offerings, rites and ceremonies, they 
impose them on the people, they surcharge them 
with mysterious rites : they respect these more 
than those duties which are of essential benefit to 
society. If Jesus has not wished that they 
should av(3nge themselves, they ' find that his 
Father has delighted in vengeance. If Jesus has 
declared that his kingdom is not of this world, 
and if he has shown contempt of riches, they nev- 
ertheless find in the Old Testament, sufficient 
reasons for establishing a hierarchy for the govern- 
ing of the world in a spiritual sense, as kings do 
in a political one,— for the disputing with kings 
about their power,— for exercising in this world, 
an authority the most unlimited, a licence the 
most terrific. In a word, if they have found in 
the Bible, some precepts of a moral tendency and 
practical utility, they have also found others to 
justify crimes the most atrocious. 

Thus, in the Christian religion, 'morality uni- < 
formly depends on the fanaticism of priests, their 
passions, their interests : its principles are never 
, fixed, they vary according to circumstances : the 
Gr*l of whom they are the organs, apd the inter- 
preters, has not said any thing but what agrees 
best with their views and what never contra- 
venes their interest. Following their caprices, 
he changes his advice continually ; be approves, 
and disapproves, of the same actions : he loves, 
or detests, the same conduct, he changes crime 
into virtue, and virtue into crime. 

^ What is the result from all this ? It is that 
, tlie Christians have not sure principles in mor^d- 
U 



196 Letters to euc^enia. 

ity : it varies with the policy of the priests, who 
are in a situation to command the creduhty of 
mankind, and who by force of menaces and 
lerrours obhge men to shut their eyes on iheir con- 
tradictions, and minds the most honest to commit 
faults the greatest which can be committed 
against religion. .'It is thus that under a God 
who recommends the love of our neighbour, the 
Christians accustom themselves from infancy to 
detest an heretical neighbour, and are almost 
always in a disposition to overwhelm him by 0, 
crowd of arguments received irom their priests. 
It is thus that, under a God wlio onhiins we 
should love our enemies and forgive their offen- 
ces, the Christians hate and destroy tlie eriemies 
of their priests, and take vengeance, without 
measure, for injuries \\ hich they pretend to liave 
received. It is thus, that under a just God, a God 
who never ceases to boast of his goodness, the 
Christians, at the signal of their spiritual guides, 
become unjust and cruel, and make a merit of 
having stiffed the cries of nature, the voice of hu- 
«ianity, tlie counsels of wisdom, and of public 
interest. 

In a word, all the ideas of justice and of injus- 
tice, of good and evil, of happiness and of 
misfortune, are necessarily confounded in the 
head of a Christian. -f His despotic priest com- 
mands him in the name of God to put no reliance 
on his reason, and the man who is compelled to 
abandon it for the guidance of a troubled imaai- 
nation, will be far more likely to consult and 
admit the most stupid fanaticism as the inspira- 
tion of the Most High. In his blindness, he casts 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 197 

at his feet duties the most sacred, and he believes 
himself virtuous in outraging every virtue. ^ Has 
he remorse ^ his priest appeases it speedily, and 
points out some easy practices by which he may 
sooQ recommend himself to God. ^ Has he com- 
mitted injustice, violence, and rapine ? he may 
repair all by giving to the church the goods of 
which he has despoiled worthy citizens ; or by 
repaying by largesses, which will procure him 
the prayers of the priests and the favour of hea- 
ven. For the priests never reproach men, who 
give them of this world's goods, of the injustice, 
the cruelties, and the crimes they have been 
guilty, to support the church and befriend her 
ministers ; the faults which have almost always 
been found the most unpardonable, have always 
been those of most disservice to the clergy. To 
question the faith and reject the authority o\ the 
priesthood, have always been the most frightful 
crimes ; they are truly the sin against the Holy 
G host, which can never be forgiven either in this 
world or in that which is to come. To despise 
these objects which the priests have an interest 
in making to be respected, is sufficient to qualify 
one for the appellation of a blasphemer and an 
impious man. These vague words, void of sense, 
suffice to excite horrour in the mind of the weak 
vulgar. The terrible word sacrilege, designates 
an attempt on the person, the goods, and the 
rights of the clergy. The omission of some 
useless practice is exaggerated and represented 
as a crime more detestable than actions which 
injure society. In favour of fidelity to fulfil the 
duties of religion, the priest easily pardons his 



198 LETTERS TO EtGENIA. 

slave submitting to vices, criminal debaucheries, 
and excesses the most horrible. You perceive 
; then, Madam, that the Christian morahty has 

; really in view but the utiUty of the priests. Why 

' then should you be surprised that they endeavour 

to make themselves arbitrary and sovereign ; 
that they deem as faults and as criminal, all the 
virtues which agree not with their marvellous 
systems. The Christian morality appears only 
to have been proposed to blind men, to disturb 
their reason, to render them abject and timid, to 
plunge them into vassalage, to make them lose 
sight of the earth which they inhabit, lor visions 
of bhss in heaven. ^ By the aid of this morality 
the priests have become the true masters hei'e 
below ; they have imagined virtues and practices 
ll useful only to themselves ; they have proscribed 

I and interdicted those which were truly useful to 

!; society ; they have made' slaves of their disciples, 

who make virtue to consist in blind submission to 
their caprices. 

To lay the foundations of a good mora lit3% it is 
absolute^ necessary to destro}^ the piejudices 
which the priests have inspired in us ; it is neces- 
sary to begin by rendering the mind of man \ 
energetic, and freeing it from those vain terrours | 
which have enthralled it ; it is necessary to re- | 
nounce those supernatural notions which have till \ 
now hindered men from consulthig the volume of i 
nature, which have subjected reason to the yoke 
of authority ; it is necessar)^ to encourage man, 
to undeceive him as to those prejudices which 
have enslaved him ; to annihilate in his bosom 
those false theories which corrupt his nature, and 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 199 

which are in fact, infidel guides, destructive of 
the real happiness of the species. It is necessary 
to undeceive him as to the idea of his loathing 
himself, and especially that other idea that soiiie 
of his fellow creatures are not to labour with their 
hands for their support, but in S})iritual matters 
for his happiness. In fine, it is necessary to in- 
fluence him with self love, that he may merit the 
esteem of the world, the benevolence and consi- 
deration of those with whom he is associated by 
the ties of nature or public economy. 

The morality of rehgion appears calculated to 
confound society and replunge its members into 
the savage state. The christian virtues tend 
evidently to isolate man, to detach him from 
those to whom nature has united him, and to 
unite him to the priests ; to make him lose sight 
of a happiness the most solid, to occupy himself 
only with dangerous chimeras. We only live in 
society to procure the more easily those kindness- 
es, succours, and pleasures, w^hich we could not 
obtain living by ourselves. If it had been desti- 
ned that we should live miserably in this world, 
that we should detest ourselves, fly the esteem 
of others, voluntarily aflflict ourselves, have no 
attachment for any one, — society would have 
been one heap of confusion, the human kind sava- 
ges and strangers to one another. 

However, if it is true that God is the author of 
man, it is God who renders man sociable ; it is 
God who wishes man to hve in society where he 
can obtain the greatest good. If God is good, he 
cannot approve that men should leave society to 
become miserable ; if God is the author of rear 



200 LEtTlgRS TO ElTG^ENlA. 

son, he can only wish that men who are possessed 
of reason should employ this distinguishing gift 
to procure for themselves all the happiness its 
exercise can bring them. - If God has revealed 
himself, it is not in some obscure way, but in a 
revelation the most evident and clear of all those 
supposed revelations, which are visibly contrary 
to all the notions we can form of the divinity. 

We are not however obliged to dive into the 
marvellous to establish the duties man owes to 
man ; since God has very plainly shown them in 
the wants of one and the good offices of another 
person. But it is only by consulting our reason 
that w^e can arrive at the means of contributing 
to the felicity of our species. It is then evident 
that in regarding man as the creature of God,— 
God must have designed that man should consult 
his reason, that it might procure him the most 
sohd happiness, and those principles of virtue 
which nature approves. 

^^ ^ What then might not our opinions be, were we 
to substitute the morality of reason for the moral- 
ity of religion ? In place of a partial and reserved 
morality for a small number of men, let us substi- 
tute a universal morality, intelligible to all the 
inhabitants of the earth, and of which all can find 
the principles in nature. 'Let us study this 
nature, its wants and its desires ; let us examine 
the means of satisfying it : let us consider what is 
the end of our existence in society ,-^we shall see 
that all those who are thus associated, are com- 
pelled by their natures to practise affection one to 
another, benevolence, esteem and relief, if desi- 
red ; we shall see what is that line of conduct; 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 201 

which necessarily excites hatred, ill-will, and all 
those misfortunes which experience makes fami- 
liar to mankind ; our ' reason will tell us what 
actions are the most calculated to excite real 
happiness and good will, the most solid und ex- 
tensive ; let us weigh these with those that are 

* founded on visionary theories ; their difference 
will at once be perceptible ; the advantages 
which are permanent we will not sacrifice for 
those that are momentary ; we will employ all 
our faculties to augment the happiness of our 
species ; we will labour with perseverance and 
courage to extirpate evil from the earth ; we will 
assist as much as we can, those who are without 
friends ; we will seek to alleviate their distresses 
and their pains ; we will merit their regard, and 
thus fulfil the end of our being on earth. 

• In conducting ourselves in this manner, our 
reason prescribes a morality agreeable to nature, 
reasonable to all, constant in its operation, effec- 
tive in its exercise in benefitting all, in contribu- 
ting to the happiness of society, collectively and 
individually, in distinction to the mysticism 
preached up by priests. We shall find in our 

• reason and in our nature the surest guides, supe- 
rior to the clergy who only teach us to benefit 
themselves. We shall thus enjoy a morality as 
durable as the race of man. We shall have 
precepts founded on the necessity of things ; 
that will punish those transgressing them, and 
rewarding those who obey them. Every man 
who shall prove himself to be just, useful, benefi- 
cent, will be an object of love to his fellow 
citizens ; every mm >ybo shall prove hinjself 



202 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

unjust, useless and wicked, will become an 
object of hatred to himself as w^ell as to others : 
he will be forced to tremble at the violation of 
the laws ; he will be compelled to do that which 
is good to gain the good will of mankind and 
preserve the regard of those who have the pov/er 
of obliging him to be a useful member of the 
State. 

Thus, Madam, if it should be demanded of you, 
what you would substitute for the benefit of soci- 
ety in place of visionary reveries. I reply a 
sensible morality, a good education, profitable 
habits,' self-evident principles of duty,' wise laws 
which even the wicked cannot misunderstand, 
but which may correct their evil purposes, and 
recompenses that may tend to the promotion of 
virtue. - ' The education of the present day tends 
only to make youth the slaves of superstition ; 
the virtues which it inculcates on them are only 
those of fanaticism, to render the mind subject to 
the priests for the remainder of life ; the motives 
to duty are only fictitious and imaginary ; the 
rewards and punishments which it exhibits in an 
obscure glimmering, produce no other effect than 
to make useless enthusiasts and dangerous fa- 
natics. The principles on which enthusiasm 
establishes morality are changing and ruinous ; 
those on which the morahty of reason is estab- 
lished are fixed, and cannot be overturned. 
Seeing then that man, a reasonable being, should 
be chiefly occupied about his preservation and 
happiness ; that he should love virtue ; that 
he should be sensible of its advantages ; that he 
should fear the consequences of crime, ^ is it to be 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 203 

Woiidered I should insist so much on the practice 
of virtue as his chief good f^Men ought to hate^ 
crime, because it leads to misery. Society to 
exist must receive the united virtue of its mem- 
bers, obedience to good laws, the activity and 
intelligence of citizens to defend its privileges 
and its rights. Laws are good when they invite 
tlie members of society to labour for reciprocal 
good offices. Laws are just when they recom- 
pense or punish in proportion to the good or evil 
which is done to society. ' Laws supported by a 
visible authority should be founded on present 
motives ; and thus they would lave more force 
than those of religion which are founded on un- 
certain motives, imaginary and removed from 
this world, and which experience proves cannot 
suffice to curb the passions of bad men, nor show 
them their duty by the fear of punishments after 
death. 

If in place of stifling human reason, as is too 
much done, its perfectibility were studied : if in 
place of deluging the world with visionary 
notions, truth were inculcated ; if in place of 
pleading a supernatural morality, a morality 
agreeable to humanity and resulting from expe- 
rience were preached, we should no longer be 
the dupes of imaginary theories, nor of terrifying 
fables as the bases of virtue. Every one would 
then perceive that it is to the practice of virtue, to 
the faithful observation of the duties of morality, 
that the happiness of individuals and of society 
is to be traced. } Is he a husband .'^ he will per- 
ceive that his essential happiness is to show 
kindness, attachment, and tenderness to the com- 



204 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

panion of his life, destined by his own choice to 
share his pleasures and endure his misfortunes. 
And on the other hand, she, by consulting lier 
true interests, will perceive that they consist in 
rendering homage to her husband, in interdicting 
every thought that could alienate her affections, 
diminish her esteem and confidence in him. 
Fathers and mothers will perceive, that their 
children are destined to be one day their consola- 
tion and support in old age ; and that by conse- - 
quence they have the greatest interest in inspiring 
them, in early life, with sentiments of which they 
may themselves reap the benefit when age or 
misfortune may require the fruits of those advan- 
tages that result from a good education. Their 
children, early taught to reflect on these things, 
will find their interest to lie in meriting the kind- 
ness of their parents, and in giving them proofs 
that the virtues they are taught will be commu- 
nicated to their posterity. The master will 
perceive, that to be served with affection, he 
owes good will, kindness, and indulgence, to those 
at whose hands he would reap advantages, and 
by whose labour he would increase his prosperi- 
ty ; and servants will discover how much their 
happiness depends on fidelity, industry, and 
good temper in their situations. Friends will 
find the advantages of a kindred heart for friend- 
ship, and the reciprocity of good offices. The 
members of the same family will perceive the 
necessity of preserving that union which nature 
has established among them ; to render mutual 
benefits in prosperity or in adversity. Societies, 
if they reflect on the end of their association, will 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 205 

perceive, that to secure it they mast observe 
good faith and punctuahty in their engagements. 
The citizen, when he consults his reason, will 
perceive how much it is necessarj^ for the good 
of the nation to which he belongs, that he should 
exert himself to advance its prosperity, or, in its 
misfortunes, to retrieve its glory. By conse- 
quence every one in his sphere, and using his 
faculties for this great end, will find his own ad- 
vantage in restraining the bad as dangerous and 
opposing enemies to the state, as enemies to 
himself. 

In a word, every man who will reflect for him- 
self will be compelled to acknowledge the necesi- 
ty of virtue for the happiness of the world. It is 
so obvious that justice is the basis of all society ; 
that good will and good offices necessarily procure 
for men affection and respect ; thnt every man 
who respects himself ought to seek the esteem of 
others ; that it is necessary to merit the good 
opinion of society ; that he ought to be jealous of 
his reputation ; that a weak being who is every 
instant exposed to misfortunes, ' ought to know 
what are his duties, and how he should practise 
them for the benefit of himself and the assembly 
of which he is a member. 

If we reflect for one moment on the efl^ects of 
the passions, we shall perceive the necessity of 
repressing them, if we would spare ourselves 
vain regrets and useless sorrows, which certainly 
always afl3ict those who obey not the laws. 
Thus, a single reflection will suffice to show the 
impropriety of anger, the dreadful consequences 
of revenge, calumny, and backbiting. Anger is 



206 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

madness ; it is the child of ioWy, the enemy of 
society. 

Ifthe man who consults his reason has real and 
powerful motives for doing good to others and 
abstaining irom injuring them, he has present 
motives equalty urgent to restrain him from the 
commission of vice. Experience may suffice to 
show him that if he become sooner or later the 
victim of his excesses, he ceases to be the friend 
of virtue, and exists only to serve vice which will 
infallibly punish him. This being allowed, pru- 
dence, or the desire of preserving one's self free 
from the contamination of evil, ought to inculcate 
to every man his path of duty ; and, unless 
blinded by his passions, he must perceive how 
much moderation in his pleasures, temperance, 
chastity, contribute to happiness ; that those who 
transgress in these respects are necessarily the 
•victims of ill-health, and too often pass a life 
both infirm and unfortunate, which terminates 
soon in death. 

} How is it possible then. Madam, from vis- 
ionary theories to arrive at these conclusions, and 
establish from supernatural fantasmsthe princi- 
ples of private and public virtue ? j Shall we 
launch into unknown regions to ascertain our duty 
and to keep our station in society ? } Is it not suf- 
ficient if we wish to be happy that we should 
endeavour to preserve ourselves in those maxims 
which reason approves, and on which virtue is 
founded ? Every man who would perish, who 
would render his existence miserable, whoever 
would sacrifice permanent happiness for present 
pleasure is a fool, who reflects not on the inter- 
ests that are dearest to him. 



LEISTERS TO EL'G^EXIA. 207 

— If there are any principles so clear as the mor- 
ality ol' humanity has been and is still proved lo 
be, they are suc:h as men ought to observe. They 
are not obscure notions, mysticism, contradic- 
tions, which have made of a science the most ob- 
vious and best demonstrated, an unintelligible sci- 
ence, mysterit)us and uncertain to those lor whom 
it is designed. In the hands of the priests, mor- 
ality has become an enigma ; they have founch^d 
our duties on the attributes of a deity whom the 
mind of man cannot comprehend, in place of 
founding them on the character of man himself. 
Thev have thrown in amon^: them tlje founda- 
tions of an edifce which is made for this earth. — 
Thev have desired to reofulate odr manners aoree- 
ably to equivocal oracles which every instant 
contradict themselves, and which too often ren- 
der their devotees useless to society and lo them- 
selves. They have pretended to render their 
morality more sacred by inviting us to look for 
recompenses and punishments removed bej^ond 
this lite, but which they ainiounce in the name of 
the divinity. ' In fine, they have made man a 
being who may not even strive at periection, by 
a preordination of some to bhss, and consequent 
damnation of others, whose insensibihty is the 
result of this selection. 

jNeed we not, then, wonder that this supernatu-' 
ral morality should be so contrary to the nature 
and the mind of man ? It is in vain that it aims at 
the annihilation of human nature which is so much 
stronger, so much more powerful, than imagina- 
tion. In despite of all the subtile and marvel- 
lous speculations of the priests, man continues 



208 LETTERS TO EUGENIA • 

always to love himself, to desire his well being, 
and to flee misfortune and sorrow. He has then 
always been actuated by the same passions. — 
c When these passions have been moderate and 
have tended to the public good they are legitimate, 
and we approve those actions which are iheir 
effects. When these passions have been disor- 
dered, hurtful to society, or to the individual, he 
condemns them ; they punish him ; he is dissatis- 
fied with his conduct which others cannot ap- 
prove. Man always loves his pleasures, because 
in their enjoynjent he fulfils the end of his exis- 
tence ; if he exceeds their just bounds he ren- 
ders himself miserable. 

The morality of the clergy, on the other hand, 
appears calculated to keep nature always at 
variance with herself, for it is almost alwaj^s with- 
out effect even on the priesthood. Their chimer- 
as serve but to torture weak minds, and to set 
the passions at war with nature and tlieir dog- 
mas. When this morality professes to restrain 
the wicked, to curb the passions of men, it oper- 
ates in opposition to the established laws of nat- 
ural religion ; for by preserving all its rigour, it 
becomes impracticable ; and it meets with real 
devotees only in some few fanatics who have re- 
nounced nature, and who would be singular, even 
if their oddities were injurious to society. This 
morality adopted for the most part by devotees, 
without eradicating their habits or their natural 
defectSjkeeps them always in a state of opposition 
even with themselves. Their life is a round of 
faults and of scruples, of sins and remorse, of 
crimes and expiations, of pleasures which they 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 209 

enjoy, bat for which they again reproach them- 
selves for having tasted. In a word, the morahty 
of superstition necessarily carries with it into the 
heart and the family of its devotees, inward dis- 
tress and affliction; it makes of enthusiasts and 
fanatics, scrupulous devotees ; it makes a great 
many insensible and miserable ; it renders none 
periect, few good ; and those only tolerable whom 
nature, education, and habit had moulded ibr 
happiness. 

It is our temperament which decides our con- 
dition ; the acquisition of moderate passions, of 
honest habits, sensible opinions, laudable exam- 
ples, and practical virtues, is a difficult task, but 
not impossible when undertaken with reason for 
one's guide. It is difficult to be virtuous and 
happy with a temperament so ardent as to sway 
the passions to its will. One must in calmness 
consult reason as to his duty. Nature, in giving 
us lively passions and a susceptible injagination, 
has made us capable of suffering the instant we 
transgress her bounds. She then renders us 
necessary to ourselves, unci we cannot proceed to 
consult our real interest if we continue in indul- 
gence that she forbids. The passions which rea- 
son cannot restrain are not to be bridled by relig- 
ion. It is in vain tliat we hope to derive succours 
from religion, if we despise and refuse what 
nature offers us. Religion leaves men just such 
as nature and habit I ave made them : and if it 
produce any changes on some few, I believe I 
have proved that those changes are not always 
for the better. 

Congratulate yourself then. Madam, on being 



210 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

born with good dispositions, of having received 
honest principles, which shall carry \^ou through 
lite in the practice of virtue, and in the love of a 
fine and exalted taste for the rational pleasures of 
our nature. Continue to be the happiness of your 
family which esteems and honours you. Contin- 
ue to diffuse around you the blessings you enjo}^ ; 
continue to perform only those actions which are 
esteemed by all the world, and all men will res- 
pect you. Respect yourself, and others will res- 
pect you. These are the legitimate sentiments 
of virtue and of happiness. Labour for j^our own 
happiness, and you will promote that of your 
family, ^who will love you in proportion to the good 
you do it. Allow me to congratulate myself, if 
in all 1 have said, I have in anv measure swept 
from 3"our mind those clouds of fanaticism which 
o!)scure the reason ; and to felicitate you on your 
having escaped from vague theories of imagina- 
tion. Abjure superstition, which is calculated 
only to make you miserable ; > let the morality of 
humanity be your uniform religion ; that your 
happiness may be constant, let reason be your 
guide ;> that virtue may be the idol of your soul, 
cultivate and love only what is virtuous and good 
in the world ; and if there be a God, who is 
interested in the happiness of his creatures; if 
there be a God, full of justice and goodness, he 
will not be angry with you for having consulted 
your reason ; if there be another life, your happi- 
ness in it cannot be doubtful, if God rewards 
every one according to the good done here. 
I am, with respect, &c. 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 211 

LETTER XII. 

Permit me, Madam, to felicitate you on the 
happy change which you say has taken place in 
your opinions. Convinced by reasons as simple 
as obvious, your mind has become sensible of the 
futility of those notions which have for a long 
lime agitated it ; and the ineflScacy of those pre- 
tended succours which religious men boasted 
they could furnish, is now apparent to you. You 
perceive the evident dangers which result from a 
S3^stem that serves only to render men enemies to 
individual and general happiness. 

I see with pleasure that reason has not lost its 
authority over your mind ; and that it is suffi- 
cient to show you the truth that you may em- 
brace it. You may congratulate yourself on this, 
which proves the solidity of your judgment. For 
it is glorious to give one's self up to reason, and* 
to be the votary of common sense. Prejudice so 
arms mankind, that the world is full of people who 
slight their judgment ; nay, who resist the most 
obvious pleas of their understanding. Their 
eyes long shut to the light of truth, are unable to 
bear its rays; but they can endure the glimmer- 
ings of superstition, which plunges them in still 
darker obscurity. 

I am not, however, astonished at the einbar- 
rassment you have hitherto felt, nor at your cau- 
tious examination of my opinions, which are bet« 
ter understood the more thoroughly they are exam- 
ined and compared with those they oppose. It 
is impossible to annihilate at once deep-roote(J 
V 



2 12 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

prejudices. The mind of man appears to waver 
in a void, when those ideas are attacked on which 
it has long rested. It finds itself in a new world, 
wherein all is unknown. Every system of opin- 
ions is but the effect of habit. The mind has as 
great difficulty to disengage itself from its cus- 
tom of thinking, and reflect on new ideas, as the 
body has to remain quiescent after it has long 
been accustomed to exercise. Should you, for 
instance, propose to your friend to leave off snuff, 
as a practice neither healthful nor agreeable in 
company, he will not probably listen to you, or if 
he should, it will be with extreme pain that he 
can bring himself to renounce a habit long famil- 
iarized to him. 

It is precisely the same with all our prejudi- 
ces ; those of religion have the most powerful 
hold of us. From infancy we have been f miil- 
iarized with them; habit has made them a sort of 
want we cannot dispense with: our mode of 
thinking is formed, and familiar to us ; our mind 
is accustomed to engage itself with certain clas- 
ses of objects ; and our imagination fancies that 
it wanders in chaos when it is not fed with those 
chimeras to which it had been long accustomed. 
Fantoms, the most horrible, are even clear to it ; 
objects the most familiar to it, if viewed with the 
calm eye of reason, are disagreeable and revolt- 
ing. 

Religion, or rather its superstitions, in conse- 
quence of the marvellous and bizzare notions it 
engenders, gives the mind continual exercise; 
and its votaries fanc}'' they are doomed to a dan- 
gerous inaction when they are suddenly deprived 



1.ETTERS TO EUGENIA. 213 

of the objects on which their imagination exerted 
its powers. Yet is this exercise so much the more 
necessary as the imagination is by far the most 
lively faculty of the mind. Hence, without doubt, 
it becomes necessary, men should replace stale 
fooleries by those which are novel. This is, 
moreover, the true reason why devotion so often 
affords o^nsolation in great disgraces, gives diver- 
sion for chagrin, and replaces the strongest pas- 
sions, when they have been quenched by excess 
of pleasure and dissipation. The marvellous 
arguments, chimeras multiply as religion furnish- 
es activity and occupation to the fancy ; habit 
renders them familiar, and even necessary ; ter- 
rours themselves, even minister food to the imag- 
ination ; and religion, the religion of priestcraft, 
is full of terrours. Active and unquiet spirits 
continually requires this nourishment ; the imag- 
ination requires to be alternately alarmed and 
consoled ; and there are thousands who cannot 
accustom themselves to tranquility, and the 
sobriety of reason. Many persons also require 
fantoms to make them rehgious, and they find 
these succours in the dogmas of priestcraft. 

These reflections w^ill serve to explain to you 
the continual variations to which many persons 
are subject, especially on the subject of religion. 
Sensible, like barometers, you behold them wav- 
ering without ceasing ; their imagination floats, 
and is never fixed : so often as you find them 
freely given up to the blackness of superstition, 
so often may you behold them the slaves of per- 
nicious prejudices. • Whenever they tremble at the 
feet of their priests, then are their necks under the 



214 LETfETRS TO BVGKNlA. 

yoke. Even people of spirit and understanding 
in other affairs, are not altogether exempt from 
these variations of mental religious temperament; 
but their judgment is too frequently the dupe of 
the imagination. And others, again, timid and 
doubting, without spirit, are in perpetual tor- 
ment. 

I What do I say ; Man is not, and cannc t 
always be the same. His frame is exposed to 
revolutions and perpetual vicissitudes ; the 
thoughts of his mind necessarily vary with the 
different degrees of changes to which his body is 
exposed. When the body is languid and fati- 
gued, the mind has liOtusuaitymuch inclination to 
vigour and gaiety. The debility of the nerves 
^ommonly annihilates the energies of the soul> 
although it be ^o remarkably distinguished from 
thebod}'^; persons ofabiUious and melancholy 
temperament, are rarely the subjects of joy j 
dissipation importunes some, gaiety fatigues 
others. Exactly after the same fashion, there are 
i Some who love to nourish sombre ideas, and these, 
religion supplies them. Devotion affects them 
like the vapours ; [superstition is an inveterate 
malady, for which there is no cure in medicine. 
\ And it is impossible to keep him free from super- 
^stition whose breast, the slave of fear, was never 
jsensible of courage ; nay, soldiers and sailors, the 
ibravestof men, have too often been the victims 
of superstition. • It is education alone that oper- 
iates in radically curing the human mind of its 
\ errours. j 

Those who think it sufficient, Madam, to ren- 
der a reason for the variations which we so fre- 



LETTERS TO BUGETWA. 215 

quently remark in the ideasof men, acknowledge 
that there is a secret bent of the minds of relig- 
ious persons to prejudices, from which we shall 
almost in vain endeavour to rescue their under- 
standings. You perceive, at present, w^hat you 
ought to think of those secret transitions which our 
priest would force on you, as the inspirations of 
Heaven, as divine solicitations, the effects of 
grace ; though they are, nevertheless, only the 
effects of those vicissitudes to which our consti? 
tution is liable, and which affect the robust, as 
well as the feeble ; the man of health, as well as 
the valetudinarian. 

If we might form a judgment of the correctness 
of those notions which our teachers boast of, in 
respect to our dissolution at death, we shall find 
reason to be satisfied, that there is little or np 
occasion that we should have our piinds distur- 
bed during our last moments. It is then, say 
they, that it is necessary to attend to the condi- 
tion of man ; it is then that man, undeceived as 
to the things of this hfe, acknowledges his errours. 
But there is, perhaps, no idea in the whole circle 
of theology more unreasonable than this, of which 
the credulous, in all ages, have been the dupes. 
^* Is it not at the time of a n>an's dissolution, that 
he is the least capable of judging of his true inter- 
est ? His bodily frame racked, it may be, with 
pain ; his mind is necessarily weakened or chair 
ed ; or if he should be free from excruciating 
pain, the lassitude and yielding of nature to the 
irrevocable decrees of fate at death, unfit a man 
for reasoning and judging of the sophisms that 
are proposed as panaceas for al} his efirgmr^^-rr 



216 LETTERS TO EUGENIA* 

There are, without doubt, as strange notions as 
those of rehgion ; but ^who knows that body 
and soul sink ahke at death ? 

It is in the case of health that we can promise 
ourselves to rearon with justness ; it is then that 
the soul, neither troubled by fear, nor altered by 
disease, nor led astray by passion, can judge 
soundly of what is beneficial to man. The judg- 
ments of the dying can have no weight with men 
in good health ; and they are the veriest impost- 
ours who lend them belief. The truth can alone be 
known, when both body and mind are in good 
health. No man, without evincinfy an insensible 
and ridiculous presumption, can answer for the 
ideas he is occupied with, when worn out with 
sickness and disease ; yet have the inhuman 
priests the efirontery to persuade the credulous to 
take as their examples the words and actions of 
men, necessarily deranged in intellect, by the 
derangement of their corporeal frame. In short, 
since the ideas of men necessarily vary with the 
different variations of their bodies, the man who 
presumes to reason on his death-bed with the man 
in health, arrogates what ought not to be conce- 
ded. 

Do not then. Madam, be discouraged nor sur- 
prised, if you should sometimes think of ancient 
prejudices reclaiming the rights they have for a 
long time exercised over your reason ; attribute 
then these vacillations to soncse derangement in 
your frame— to some disordered movements of 
mind, which, for a time, suspend your reason. — 
Think that there are few people who are constant- 
ly the same» and who see with the same eyes* 



t:fiTTfiRS TO EtJGENlA. 217 

Our fraflie being subject to continual variations, it 
necessarily follows that our modes of thinking 
Avill vary. We think one custom the result of 
pusillanimity, when the nerves are relaxed, and 
our bodies fatigued. We think justly when our 
body is in health, that is to say, when all its parts 
are fulfilling their various functions. There is 
one mode of thinking, or one state of mind, which 
in health we call uncertainty, and which we 
rarely experience, when our frame is in its ordi- 
nary condition. We do not then reason justly, 
when our frame is not in a condition to leave our 
mind subject to incredulity. 

} What then is to be done, when we would calm 
our mind, when we wish to reflect, even for an 
instant ? Let reason be our guide, and we shall 
soon arrive at that mode of thinking, which shall 
be advantageous to ourselves. In eSect, Madam, 
how can a God who is just, good, and reasona- 
ble, be irritated by the manner in which we shall 
think, seeing that our thoughts are always invol- 
untary, and that we cannot believe as we would, 
but as our convictions increase, or become weak- 
ened. Man is not then for one instant the master 
of his ideas, which are every moment excited by 
objects over which he has no controul, and causes 
which depend not on his will or exertions. St. 
A ugustine himself bears testimony to this truth : 
^' There is not," says he, " one man who is at all 
times master of that which presents itself to his 
spirit," — Have we not, then, good reason to con- 
clude, that our thoughts are entirely indiflferent to 
God, seeing they are excited by objects over 
which we have no controul, and, by consequence, 
that they cannot be offensive to the Deity. 



218 LETTERS TO KtTGENIA. 

If our teachers pique themselves on their prin- 
ciples, they ought to carry along with them this 
truth, that a just God cannot be offended by the 
changes which take place in the minds of his 
creatures. They ought to know that this God, if 
he is wise, has no occasion to be troubled with the 
ideas that enter the mind of man ; that if they do 
not comprehend all his perfections, it is because 
their comprehension is limited. They ought to 
recollect, that if God is all powerful, his glory and 
his power cannot be affected by the opinions and 
ideas of weak mortals, any more than the notions 
they form of him, can alter his essential attri- 
butes. In fine, if our teachers had not made it a 
duty to renounce common sense, and to close with 
notions that carry in their censequences the con- 
tradictory evidence of their premises, they would 
not refuse to avow that God would be the most 
unjust, the most unreasonable, the most cruel of 
tyrants, if he should punish beings, whom he 
himself created imperfect, and possessed of a 
deficiency of reason and common sense. 

Let us reflect a little longer, and we shall find 
that the theologians have studied to make of the 
Divinity a ferocious master, unreasonable and 
changing, who exacts from bis creatures qualities 
they have not, and services they cannot perform. 
The ideas they have formed of this unknown being, 
are almost always borrowed from those of men of 
power, who, jealous of their power and respect 
from their subjects, pretend that it is the duty of 
these last to have for them sentiments of submis- 
sion, and punish with rigour those, who by their 
conduct or their discourse^ aimoiji)ce sentiments 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 219 

not sufficiently respectful to their superiours. Thus 
you see, Madam, that God has been fashioned 
by the clergy on the model of an uneasy despot, 
suspicious of his subjects, jealous of the opinions 
they may entertain of him, and who^ to secure 
his power, cruelly chastises those who have not 
littleness of mind sufficient to flatter his vanity, 
nor courage enough to resist his power. 

It is evident that it is on ideas so ridiculous, and 
so contrary to those which nature offers us of the 
Divinity, that the absurd system of the priests is 
founded, which they pursuade themselves is very 
sensible and agreeable to the opinions of man- 
kind ; and which is very seriously insulted, they 
say, if men think differently ; and which will 
punish with severity those who abandon them- 
selves to the guidance of reason, the glory of man. 
Nothing can be more pernicious to the human 
kind than this fatal madness, which deranges all 
our ideas of a just God — of a God, good, wise, 
all-powerful, and whose glory and power, nei- 
ther the devotion nor rebellion of his creatures 
can affect. In consequence of these impertinent 
suppositions of the priesthood, men have ever been 
afraid to form notions agreeable to the mysteri- 
ous Sovereign of the universe, on whom they are 
dependent ; theii mind is put to the torture to 
divine his incomprehensible nature, and, in their 
fear of displeasing him, they have assigned to 
him human attributes, without perceiving thnt 
when they pretend to honour him, they dishonour 
Deity, and that being compelled to bestow on 
him qualities that are incompatible with Deity, 
they actually annihilate from their mind the pure 



620 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

representation of Deity, as witnessed in all nature. 
It is thus, that in almost all the reHgions on the 
face of the earth, under the pretext of making 
known the Divinity, and explaining his views 
towards mortals, the priests liave rendered him 
.incomprehensible, and have actually promulga- 
ted, under the garb of religion, nothing save 
absurdities, b\^ w^hich, if we admit them, we shall 
destroy those notions which nature gives us of 
Deiiy. 

When we reflect on the Divinitv, do we not 
see that mankind have plunged farther and far- 
ther into darkness, as they assimilated him to 
themselves ; that their judgment is always dis- 
turbed when they would make their Deity the ob- 
ject of their meditations ; that they cannot reason 
justly, because they never have any but obscure 
and absurd ideas : that they are almost always 
in uncertainty, and never agree with themselves, 
because their principl(*s are replete with doubt; 
that they always tremble, because they imagine 
that it is very dangerous to be deceived ; that 
they dispute w^ithout ceasing,' because that is irn- 
possible to be convinced of any thing, when they 
reason on objects of which they know nothing, 
and which the imaginations of men are forced to 
paint differently : in fine, that they cruelly tor- 
ment one another about opinions equally uninter- 
esting, though they attach to them the greatest 
importance, and because the vanity of the one 
party never allows it to subscribe to the reveries 
of the other. 

It is thus that t]xe divinity has become to us a 
^ourpe gf <evil, division, and quarrel^ ; it is thus 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 221 

' that his name alone inspires terroiir; it is thus 
* that rehgion has become the signal of so many 
' combats, and has always been the true apple of 
discord among unquiet mortals, who always dis- 
pute with the greatest heat, on subjects of which 
- they can never have any true ideas. They make 
it a duty to think and reason on his attributes; 
and they can never arrive at any just conclusions, 
because their mind is never in a condition to form 
true notions of what strikes their senses. In the 
impossibility of knowing the Deity by themselves, 
they have recourse to the opinion of others w hom 
they consider more adroit in theology, and who 
pretend to an intimate acquaintance with God, 
being inspired by him, and having secret intelli- 
gence of his purposes with regard to the human 
kind. Those privileged men teach nothing to 
the nations of the earth, except what their reveries 
have reduced to a system, wnthout giving ihem 
ideas that are clear and definite. They paint 
God under characters the most agreeable to their 
own interests; they make of him, a good mon- 
arch for those who blindly submit to their tenets, 
but terrible to those who refuse not to blindly 
follow them. 

Thus you perceive. Madam, W'hat those men 
are who have obviously made of the Deity an 
object so bizzare as they announce him, and who, 
to render their opinions the more sacred, have 
pretended that he is grievously offended, when 
we do not admit implicit^ the ifleas they pro- 
- mulgate of God. In the books of Moses, God 
defines himself, I om, tJuit T am; yet does 
this inspired writer detail the history of this God^ 



222 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

as a tyrant who tempts men, and who punishes 
them for being tempted, who exterminated all 
the human kind by a deluge, except a few of one 
family, because one man had fallen ; in a word, 
who, in all his conduct, behaves as a despot, 
whose power dispenses with all the rules of justice, 

^ reason, and goodness. 

/ ^ Have the successors of Moses transmitted to 
us ideas more clear, more sensible, more com- 
prehensible of the divinity? ^'Has the son of 
God made his father perfectly known to us? 
} Has the church, perpetually boasting of the 
light she diffuses among men, become more fixed 
and certain, to do away oar uncertainty ? j Alas ! 
In spite of all these supernatural succours, we 
know nothing in nature beyond the grave ; the 
ideas which are communicated to us, the recitals 
of our infallible teachers, are calculated only 
to confound our judgment, and reduce our reason 
to silence. They make of God a pure spirit ; 
that is to say, a being who has nothing in com- 
mon with matter, and who, nevertheless, has cre- 
ated matter, which he has ])roduced from his own 
fiat — his essence or substance. They have made 
him the mirror of the universe, and the soul of the 
universe. They have made him an infinite being, 
who fills all space by his immensity, although the 
material world occupies some part in space. They 
have made him a being all powerful, but whose pro- 

Ijects are incessantly varying, who neither can 
nor will maintain man in good order, nor permit 
the freedom of action necessary for rational 
beings, and who is alternately pleased and dis- 
pleased with the same beings, and their action§f 



l^'fTERg TO EUG^^NlA. 2^^ 

They make him an infinite good father, but who 
avenges himself without measure. They make 
of him a monarch infinitely just, but who con- 
founds the innocent with the guilty, who has 
mingled injustice and cruelty, in causing his own 
son to be put to death to expiate the crimes of the 
human kind ; though they are incessantly sinning 
and repenting for pardon. 

They make of him a being full of wisdom and 
foresight, yet insensible to the folly and short- 
sightedness of mortals. They make him a 
reasona ble beino- who becomes ano:rv at the 
thoughts of his creatures, though involuntary, and 
consequently necessary ;' thoughts which he him- 
self puts into their heads ; and who condemns 
them to eternal punishments if they believe not 
in reveries that are incompatible with the divine 
attributes, or w^ho dare to doubt whether God can 
possess qualities that are not capable of being 
reconciled among themselves. 

Is it then, surprising that so many good people 
are shocked at the revolting ideas, so contradic- 
tory and so appalling, which hurl mortals into a 
state of uncertainty and doubt as to the existence 
of the Deity, or even to force them into absolute 
denial of the same. It is impossible to admit in 
effect, the doctrine of the deity of priestcraft, in 
w^hich we constantly see infinite perfections, allied 
wdth imperfections the most striking; in which, 
w^hen we reflect bat momentarily, we shall find 
that it cannot produce but disorder in the imagi- 
nation, and leaves it wandering among errours 
that redu- e it to despair, or some impostors, who, 
to subjugate mankind, have wished to throw them 



224 LfiTTfins to BUGENIA. 

into embarrassment, confound their reason, and 
till them with terroar. Such appears in effect, to 
be the motives of those who have the arrogance 
to pretend to a secret knowledge, which they dis- 
tribute among mankind, though they have no 
knowledge even of themselves. They always 
paint God under the traits of an inaccessible 
tyrant, who never shows himself but to his min- 
isters and favourites, who please to veil him from 
the eyes of the vulgar ; and who are violently irri- 
tated when they find any who oppose their pre- 
tensions, or when they refuse to believe the priests 
and their unintelligible farragoes. 

If, as I have often said, it be impossible to 
believe what we cannot comprehend,' or to be 
intimately convinced of that of w^hich wo can form 
no distinct and clear ideas, we may thence con- 
clude that, when the Christians assure us they 
believe that God has announced himself in some 
secret and peculiar way to them that he has not 
done to other men, either they are themselves 
deceived, or they wish to deceive us. Their 
faith, or their belief in God, is merely an accep- 
tance of what their priests have taught them of a 
Being whose existence they have rendered more 
than doubtful to those who would reason and 
meditate. The Deity cannot, assuredly, be the 
being whom the Christians admit on the word of 
their theologians. ^ Is there, in good truth, a 
man in the world, who can form any idea, of a 
si)irit ? ^ If we ask the priests w4iat a spirit is, 
they will tell us, that a spirit is an immaterial 
being who has none of the passions of which men 
are die subjects. But j what is an immateiial 



LETTEHS TO EDOEXIA. 225 

spirit ? It is a being that has none of the qualities 
which we can fathom ; that has neither form, nor 
extension, nor colour. 

But ^how can we be assured of the existence 
of a being who has none of these quahties ? It 
is hy faith ^ say the priests, that we must be assu- 
red of his existence. ^But what is this faith ? It 
is to adhere, without examination, to what the 
priests tell us. Bui ^ what is it the priests tell us 
of God .'^ They tell us of things which we can 
neither comprehend nor reconcile among them- 
selves. The existence, even of God, has, in their 
hands, become the most impenetrable myster\n'n 
religion. But ^ do the priests tiiemselves, com- 
prehend this ineffable God, whom they announce 
toother men^ ^ Have they just ideas oi'liim? 
^'Are they themselves sincerely convi^iced of the 
existence of a being who unites incompatible 
qualities which reciprocally exclude the one or 
the other ? We cannot admit it ; and we are 
authorised to conclude, that when the priests 
profess to believe in God, either the\^ know not 
what they say, or they wish to deceive us. 

Do not then be surprised. Madam, if 3^ou should 
find that there are, in fact, people who have ven- 
tured, to doubt, of the existence of the Deity of 
the theologians, because, on meditating on the 
descriptions given of him, they have discovered 
them to be incomprehensible, or replete wiih con- 
tradiction. Do not be astonished if they never 
listen, in reasoning, to any arguments that oppose 
themselves to common sense, and seek, t()r the 
existence of the 'priest's deity, other proofs than 
have yet been offered mankind. His existence 



226 LETTERS ^O EUGENIA. 

cannot be demonstrated in revelations, which we 
discover on examination, to be the work of impos- 
ture ; revelations sap the foundations laid down 
for belief in a Divinity, which they w^ould wish to 
establish. This existence cannot be founded on 
the qualities which our priests have assigned to 
the Divinity, seeing, that in the association of 
these qualities, there only results a God whom 
we cannot comprehend, and by consequence of 
whom, we can form no certain ideas. This exis- 
tence cannot be founded on the moral qualities 
which our priests attribute to the Divinity, seeing 
these are irreconcilable in the same subject, who 
cannot be at once good and evil, just and unjust, 
merciful and implacable, wise and the enemy of 
human reason. 

^ On what, then, ought we to found the exist- 
ence of God ? The priests, themselves, tell us, 
that it is on reason, the spectacle of nature, and 
on the marvellous order which appears in ihe 
universe. Those to whom these motives for 
believing in the existence of the Divinity, do not 
appear convincing, find not, in any of the religi- 
ons in the world, motives mor e persuasive ; for 
all systems of theology, framed for the exercise 
of the imagination, plunge us into more uncer- 
tainty respecting their evidence, when they ap- 
peal to nature for proofs of what they advance. 

^ What then, are we to think of the God of the 
clergy ? j Can we think that he exists, without 
reasoning on that existence ? ^ And what shall we 
think of those who are ignorant of this God, or 
have no belief in his existence ; who cannot 
discover him in the works of nature, either as 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 22? 

good or evil ; who behold only order and disorder 
succeeding alternately ? j What idea shall we 
form of those men who regard matter as eternal, 
as actuated on by laws peculiar to itself ; as suf- 
ficiently powerful to produce itself under all the 
forms we behold ; as perpetually exerting itself 
in nourishing and destroying itself, in combining 
and dissolving itself; as incapable of love or of 
hatred, as deprived of the faculties of intellige^ice 
and sehtiment known to belong to beings of our 
species, but capable of supporting those beings 
whose organization has made them intelligent, 
sensible, and reasonable ? 

J What shall we say of those Freethinkers who 
find neither good nor evil, neither order nor dis- 
order in the universe; that all 'things are but 
relative to different conditions of beings, of which 
they have evidence ; and that all that happens 
in the universe is necessary, and subjected to 
destiny ? In a word, j what shall we think of 
these men ? 

J Shall we say that they have only a different 
manner of viewing things, or that they use dif- 
ferent words in expressing themselves ? They 
' call that Nature which others call the Divinity ; 
they call that Necessity^ which all others call the 
Divine decrees ; -they call that the Energy oi Nature. 
which others call the AtUhor oi^ Nature; they call 
that Destiny or Fate^ which others call God^ whose 
laws are always going forward. 

J Have we, then, any right to hate and to ex- 
terminate them? No, without doubt; at least, 
we cannot admit that we have any reason that 
those should perish, who speak only the same 
W 



228 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

language with ourselves, and who are reciprocally 
beneficial to us. Nevertheless, it is to this degree 
of extravagance that the banefiil ideas of religion 
have carried the human mind* Harrassed and set 
on by their priests, men have hated and assassi- 
nated each other, because that in religious matters 
they agree not to one creed* Vanity has made some 
imagine that they are better than others, more in- 
telligible, although they see that theology is a lan- 
guage which they neither understand, nor which 
they thems(ilves could invent. ; The very name 
of Freethinker, suffices to irritate them, and to 
arm the fury of others, who repeat, without ceas- 
ing, the name of God, without having any pre- 
cise idea of the Deity. If, by chance, they 
imagine that they have any notions of him, they 
are only confused, contradictory, incompatible, 
and senseless notions, Vvhich have been inspired 
in their infancy by their priests, and those who, 
as we have seen, have painted God in all those 
traits which their imagination furnished, or those 
w4io appear more conformed to their passions 
and interests, than to the well-l)eing of- their fel- 
low-creatures. 

The least reflection will, nevertheless, suffice 
to make any one perceive, that God, if he is just 
and good, cannot exist as a being known to some, 
but univnown to-others. If Freethinkers are men 
void of reason, God would be unjust to punish 
them for being blind and insensible, or for having 
too little penetration and understanding to per- 
ceive the force of those natural proofs on which 
the existence of the Deil}^ lias been founded. 'A 
God full of equit}^ cannot punish men for having 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. SS9 

been blind or devoid of reason. The Freethinkers, 
as fooHsh as they are supposed, are beings less 
insensible than those who make professions of 
believing in a God ' full of qualities that destroy 
one another ; they are less ' dangerous than the 
adorers of a changeable Deity, who, they imagine, 
is pleased with the extermination of a large por- 
tion of mankind, on account of their opinions. 
Our speculations are indifferent to God, whose 
glory man cannot tarnish— whose power mortals 
cannot abridge. They may, however, be advan- 
tageous to ourselves ; they may be perfectly indif- 
ferent to Society, whose happiness they may not 
affect ; or they may be the reverse of all this. 
For it is evident that the opinions of men do not 
influence the happiness of society. 

Hence, Madam, let us leave men to think as 
they please, provided that they act in such a 
manner as promotes the general good of society. 
The thoughts of men injure not others; their 
actions may— their reveries never. Our ideas, 
our thoughts, our systems, depend not on us. 
He who is fully convinced on one point, is not 
satisfied on another. AH men have not the same 
eyes, nor the same brains ; all have not the same 
'ideas, the same 'education, or the same opinions ; 
they never agree wholly, when they have the 
temerity to reason on matters that are enveloped 
in the obscurity of imaginative fiction, and which 
cannot be subject to the usual evidence accom- 
panying* matters of report, or historic relation. 

Men do not long dispute on objects that are 
cognizable to their senses, and which they can 
submit to the test of experience. The number 



230 LEISTERS TO ^lUGENlA. 

of self-evident truths on which men agree is very 
small. ' And the fundamentals of moraUty are 
among this number. It is obvious to all men of 
sense, that beings, united in society, require to be 
regulated by justice, that they ought to respect 
the happiness of each other, that mutual succour 
is indispensable ; in a word, ' that they are 
obliged to practice virtue, and to be useful to so- 
ciety, for personal happiness. -It is evident to 
demonstration, that the interest of our preserva- 
tion excites us to moderate our desires, and put a 
bridle on our passions ; to renounce dangerous 
habits, and to abstain from vices which can only 
injure our fortune, and undermine our health. — 
These truths are evident to every being whose 
passions have not dominion over his reason : they 
are totally independent of theological specula- 
tions, which, have neither evidence nor demon- 
stration, and which our mind can never verifv ; 
they have nothing in common with the religious 
opinions, on wdiich the imagination soars from 
earth to sky, nor with the fanaticism and credu- 
lity, which are so frequently producing among 
mankind the most opposite principles to morality 
and the well-being of" society. 

They v\^ho are of the Freethinkers' opinions, 
are not more dangerous than they who are of the 
priests' opinions. - In short, Christianity has pro- 
duced effects more appalling than heathenism. — 
The speculative principles of the Freethinkers, 
have done no injury to society ; the contagious 
principles of fanaticism and enthusiasm, have 
only served to spread disorder on the earth. 

If there are dangerous notions and fatal specu- 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 231 

lations in the world, they are those of the' devo- • 
- tees, who obey a rehgion that divides men, and 
excites their passions, and who sacrifice the in- 
terests of society, of sovereigns, and their sub- 
jects to their own ambition, their avarice, their 
vengeance and fury. 

There is no question that the Freethinker has 
motives to be good, even though he admit not 
notions that bridle his passions. It is true that 
the Freethinker has no invisible motives, but he 
has motives, and a visible restraint, which, if he 
reflects, cannot fail to regulate his actions. If he 
doubts about religion, he does not question the 
laws of moral obligation ; nor that it is his duty 
to moderate his passions, to labour for his happi- 
ness, and that of others, to avoid hatred, disdain, 
and discord as crimes ; and that he should shun 
vices which may injure his constitution, reputa- 
tion, and fortune. 

Thus relatively to his morality, the Freethinker 
has principles more sure than those of superstition 
and fanaticism. In fine, if nothing can restrain 
the Freethinker, a' thousand forces united, would 
not prevent the fanatic from the commission of 
crimes, and the violation of duties the most sa- 
cred. 

Besides, I beheve that I have already proved 
that the morality of superstition has no certain 
principles ; that it varies with the interests of the 
priests, who. explain the intentions of the Divin- 
ity, as they find these accordant or discordant to 
their views and interests ; which, ; alas ! are too 
often the result of cruel and wicked purposes. — 
On the contrary, the Freethinker, who has no 



232 LETTERS TO "EVGBNIA. 

morality but what he draws from the nature and 
character of man, and the constant events which 
transpire in society, has a certain morality that 
is not founded either on the caprice of circum- 
stances, or the prejudices of mankind ; a morahty 
that tells him when he does evil, and blames him 
for the evil so done, and that is superior to the 
morality of the intolerant fanatic and persecutor. 

You thus perceive. Madam, on which side the 
morality of the Freethinkers leans, what advan- 
tages it possesses over that inculcated on the 
superstitious devotee, who ' knows no other rule 
than the caprice of his priest, nor any other mor- 
ahty than what suits the interest of the clergy, 
nor any other virtues than such as make him 
the slave of their will, and which are too often in 
opposition to the great interests of mankind. — 
Thus you perceive that what is understood by the 
natural morality of the Freethinker, is much 
more constant, and more sure than that of the 
superstitious, who believe they can render them- 
selves agreeable to God ' by the intercession of 
priests. If the Freethinker is blind or corrupted, 
by not knowing his duties which nature pre- 
scribes to him, it is precisely in the same wa}^ as 
the superstitious, whose invisible motives and 
sacred guides prevent him not from going occa- 
sionally astray. 

These reflections will serve to confirm what I 
have already said, to prove that morality has 
nothing in common with religion ; and that relig- 
ion is its own enemy, though it pretends to dis- 
pense with support from other sources. • True 
morality is founded on the nature of man ; the 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 233 

morality of religion is founded only on the chi- 
meras of imagination, and on the caprice of those 
who speak of the Deity in a language too often 
contrary to nature and right reason. 

Allow me then, Madam, to repeat to you, that 
moraUty is the only natural religion for man ; the 
only object worthy his notice on earth, the only 
worship which he is required to render to the De- 
ity. It is uniform and replete with obvious duties 
which rest not on the dictation of priests, blab- 
bing chit-chat they do not understand, j If it be 
this morality which I have defined, that makes 
us what we are, ought we not to ' labour strenu- 
ously for the happiness of our race ? If it be this 
morahty that makes us reasonable, that enables 
us to distinguish good from evil, the useful from 
the hurtful ; that makes us sociable, and enables 
us to live in society to receive and repay mutual 
benefits ; we ought at least to respect all those 
w^ho are its friends. 

If it be this morality which sets bounds to our 
temper, it is that which interdicts the commission 
in thought, word, or action, of what would injure 
another, or disturb the happiness of society. If 
it attach us to the preservation of all that is dear 
to us, it points out how by a certain line of con- 
duct we may preserve ourselves j for its laws, 
clear and of easy practice, inflict on those who 
disobey them instant punishment, fear and re- 
morse ; on the other hand, the observance of its 
duties is accompanied with immediate and real 
advantages, and notwithstanding the depravity 
which prevails on earth, vice always finds itself 
punished^ and virtue is not always deprived of 



234 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

the satisfaction it yields, of the esteem of men, 
and the recompence of society ; even if men are 
in other respects unjust, they will concede to the 
virtuous the due meed of praise. 

Behold, Madam, to what the dogmas of natu- 
ral religion reduce us : in meditating on it, and 
in practising its duties, w^e shall be truly relig- 
ious, and filled with the spirit of the Divinitj' ; we 
shall be admired and respected by men, we shall 
be in the right way to be loved by those who rule 
over us, and respected hj those who serve us ; 
we shall be truly happy in this world, and we shall 
have nothing to fear in the next. 

These are laws so clear, so demonstrable, and 
whose infraction is so evidently punished : whose 
obser%"ance is so surely recompensed, that they 
constitute the code of nature of all living beings, 
sentiment and reasoning, all acknowledge their 
authority ; all find in them the evidence of Deity, 
and consider those as sceptics who doubt their 
efficac}^ The Freethinker does not refuse to 
acknowledge as fundamental laws, those which 
are obviously founded on the God of Nature, and 
on the immutable and necessary circumstances of 
things cognizable to the faculties of sentient 
natures. The Indian, the Chinese, the savage, 
perceives these self-evident laws, whenever he 
is not carried headlong by his passions into 
crime and errour. In fine, these laws, so true, 
and so evident, never can appear uncertain, 
obscure^ or false, as are those superstitious chi- 
meras of the imagination which knaves have sub- 
stituted for the truths of nature, and the dicta of ^ 
common sense; and those devotees who know no 



LETTERS TO EUGENIA, 235 

Other laws than those of the caprices of their 
priests, necessarily obey a morality little calcu- 
lated to produce personal or general happiness, 
but much calculated to lead to extravaoance and 

o 

inconvenient practices. 

Hence, charming Eugenia, you will allow 
mankind to think as they please, and judge of 
them after their actions. Oppose reason to their 
systems, when they are pernicious to themselves 
or others ; remove their prejudices if you can, 
that they may not become the victims of their 
caprices, show them the truth which may always 
remove errour ; banish from their minds the fan- 
toms which disturb them ; advise them not to 
meditate on the mysteries of their priests ; bid 
them renounce all those illusions they have sub- 
- stituted for morality ; and advise them to turn 
their thoughts on that which conduces to their 
happiness. Meditate yourself on your own 
nature, and the duties which it imposes on you. 
Fear those chastisements which follow inatten- 
tion to this law. Be ambitious to be approved 
by your own understanding, and you will rarely 
fail to receive the applauses of the humankind, 
as a good member of society. 

If you wish to meditate, think with the greatest 
strength of your mind on your nature. Never 
abandon the torch of reason ; cherish truth sin- 
cerely. When you are in uncertainty, pause, or 
follow what appears the most probable, always 
abandoning opinions that are destitute of founda- 
tion, or evidence of their truth and benefit to soci- 
ety. Then will you, in good truth, 3^ield to the 
impulse of your heart when reason is your guide ; 



236 LETTERS TO EUGENIA. 

then will you consult in the calmness of passion, 
and counsel yourself on the advantages of virtue, 
and the consequences of its want ; and you may 
flatter yourself that you cannot be displeasing to 
a wise God, though jou disbelieve absurdities, 
nor agreeable to a good God in doing things hurt- 
ful to yourself or to others. 



I am, Madam, &c. 

D'HOLBACH. 

THE END. 



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